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''En Vair! 

(IN THE AIR) 



>* 





BERT HALL 



(IN THE AIR) 

Three Yean on and above Three Fronts 



BY 
Lieut. BERT HALL 

An American of the French 
Flying Corps 



Fully Illustrated 



THE NEW LIBRARY, Inc. 

542 FIFTH AVENUE 

NEW YORK, N. Y. 



>A ,.' 



f\\1 



Copyright, 1918, by 
THE NEW LIBRARY, Inc. 

New York, N. Y. 



MAR -2 1918 



©CI,A-492443 



Dedicated to 
MY COMRADES 

Who are still There, who have made 

the supreme sacrifice for humanity, 

and to 

Mr. and Mrs. 

LAWRENCE SLADE, 

Who have been Father and Mother 

to us all — may they live forever ! 



CONTENTS 



Publisher's Note 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I The Foreign Legion .... 3 

II At the Front 13 

III In the Trenches 28 

IV Training in the Aviation Corps 38 
V The Lafayette Escadrille . . 46 

VI Flying and Fighting in Cham- 
pagne ^6 

VII Fighting the Boche at Verdun 64 
VIII The Best of Sport — an Air 

Sortie 76 

IX Air Combats Along the Somme 

Fronts 90 

X My Methods of Attack ... 98 

XI Submarined En Route to Russia 108 
XII Trying to Help Russia and Rou- 

MANiA 115 

XIII Bombing the Kaiser at Sofia . 125 

XIV The Revolution as I Saw It . 134 
XV My Pals 142 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Bert Hall Frontispiece'^ 

Facing Page 

William Thaw 8" 

A beautiful sea of clouds 14 *^ 

Bert Hall returning from patrol 18* 

French observation machine, convoyed by a Nieuport 24' 

German Fokker flying over French territory .... 30" 

Same German as in preceding picture 34*' 

Nieuport assisted by a Farman attacking a German . 40 

First American Escadrille in France 46' 

Kiffen Rockwell 50*" 

Victor Chapman 56 ^ 

Trenches from 15,000 feet altitude, east of Rheims . . 58 

Results of night flying 62 

Looking north at Verdun 66 

German aeroplane brought down near Verdun ... 72'" 

Our Aviation Field at Verdun 76" 

Bert Hall and his Nieuport 80 

German machine falling in flames near Verdun . . . 86 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Facing Page 

German machine attacking observation balloon . . 90^ 

Balloon falling in flames 90^ 

German Fokker brought down in our lines undamaged 94^ 

Remains of German machine brought down near Belfort 96 "^ 

Nieuport fighting machine, with gun 98*^ 

Hanging over big cloud banks ........ 102^ 

A Nieuport protecting an artillery-directing machine . 108"^ 

Our home on the Russian front. Aeroplane box used 

for house 112^ 

Masson and Bert Hall 112 

Crowds in street during Revolution, Petrograd . . . 120" 

Street Fighting in Petrograd during the Revolution . 128"^ 

Funeral procession going to the Champ Mars, Petrograd 134^ " 

Burying the dead after the Revolution 140^ 

Group, taken day of Norman Prince's funeral . . . 144^ 

Same group in flying clothes 150 ' 



PUBLISHER'S NOTE 

This book is the amazing story, told in his 
own words, of an American who fought in 
the French Army from the second day after 
war was declared in 1914 until the present 
time. His service included also special duty 
on the Russian Front. The following cita- 
tion, in the Order of the Day for the entire 
army, gives a glimpse of his remarkable ex- 
ploits : 

General Headquarters, June 18th. 
Order No. 3083D. 
The Medaille Militaire is conferred upon 
the following name : Bert Hall, Sergeant of 
Escadrille N 124. Engaged volunteer for 
the duration of the war. After having 
served in the infantry, transferred into the 
aviation. Has become very rapidly pilote of 
the first class. Very intelligent, energetic 



PUBLISHER'S NOTE 

and audacious. Has fulfilled on many oc- 
casions on his demand missions particularly- 
dangerous and perilous in rear of German 
lines. The 22nd of May has attacked and 
after a very severe combat, destroyed, his 
adversary within a few hundred meters of 
our trenches. This nomination carries the 
Croix de Guerre and one palm leaf. 

J. JOFFRE. 

Wounded many times, twice severely. 
Lieutenant Hall now may wear when he 
chooses seven decorations, including the 
Cross of St. George, awarded by the Russian 
Government only in cases of exceptional 
bravery. This cross, pinned on the breast 
of Lieutenant Hall by Czar Nicholas, was 
the last decoration he gave before his down- 
fall. 

Lieutenant Hall was asked by the pub- 
lishers for a biographical sketch, and sent 
this characteristic reply : 

''I was born at Bowling Green, Novem- 



PUBLISHERS NOTE 

ber 7th, 1880. Have spent most of my life 
traveling and in foreign countries. Began 
sporting career by riding high- jumping 
horses. Afterwards took up automobile rac- 
ing, then flying. Was ten years in Texas, 
six years in Missouri, and about six years in 
France before the declaration of war in 

1914." 

The title, ''En I'Air," familiar to many 

American readers, is the command given 

aviators in the French Army to leave the 

ground on the duty to which they have been 

assigned. 



''En Vair! 

(IN THE AIR) 



>f 



''En VAirr 

CHAPTER I 

THE FOREIGN LEGION 

It certainly is good to be back here in 
America again, but I expect to return to the 
Western Front soon. There is plenty to do, 
a job for every man who is able to walk. 
With me the great trouble and bother is that 
my right arm doesn't work the way it used 
to, but it is getting into fair shape again. 
The doctors have built up the part from the 
shoulder to the elbow so it really looks like 
an arm again. They've patched me up in 
several other places, too. They are won- 
ders, these doctors, in the way they can make 
over a man, and in some cases I think better 
than he was originally. 

3 



4 ''EN UAIRr 

But even at that your body isn't like your 
aeroplane. If the engine breaks, you just go 
get a new one and start out again. But with 
your arm, if there's anything left of it, you 
have to make use of what still works and let 
it go at that. 

They may let me fly again, and I certainly 
hope they will. Naturally I prefer the air, 
for that is where I've done most of my work, 
but I've been in fighting of all kinds since 
I enlisted in the Foreign Legion of the 
French Army two days after war broke out 
in August, 1914 Since my return to this 
country many people have asked me why I 
joined the French Army, and my reply is 
that if a country is good enough to live in it 
is good enough to fight for. 

I am just thirty-seven, but still feel able 
to whip any German on earth at any game 
he chooses. Over here, they tell me that I'm 
too old for the United States service. Over 
there, with the few of my comrades who are 
still living, it is different. So I must go back 
to good old France. May she live forever! 



THE FOREIGN LEGION 5 

As luck would have it, I was in France at 
the beginning of hostilities. I don't know 
how it was with others, but all the Americans 
I knew in France couldn't be neutral. 

We wanted to fight, and fight right away. 
Practically every American man I talked 
with in Paris wished to enlist and many of 
them did, as everybody knows. It was the 
second day after Germany's declaration of 
war that most of us, myself included, got 
into the game. Everything and everybody 
in Paris was wild, although the French Army 
was being mobolized in a very business-like 
way. So at first we didn't know where to 
apply, or what to do. 

It was then that we made plans for organ- 
izing what we called the American Volun- 
teer Corps. This movement was started by 
George Casmeze, who had lived in France 
for some years. Rene Philezot, Charles 
Sweeney and I were the committee chosen 
to get volunteers. We received permission 
from the Government to train in the grounds 
of the Palais Royal. Sweeney, being a West 



6 ''EN UAIRr 

Pointer, was later one of our most valuable 
instructors. We got along very well and 
our enlistments went on fine. We had about 
one hundred and fifty, and they all seemed 
anxious to go to the front as soon as possible. 
Our training went on for two weeks or more, 
while the situation at the front was getting 
more desperate daily. This made us all the 
more eager to have a hand in it. 

The day for our departure from Paris 
came on August 24th. I regret to say that 
some of our gallant heroes suddenly fell ill 
or had business elsewhere, but not more than 
is the case in most volunteer organizations 
like ours probably. I want to name here a 
few, only a few, of the real Americans who 
started out that day. I mention them for 
the reason that I knew them and also be- 
cause we were to fight together, or in differ- 
ent branches of the service, in the months 
that followed. I am proud to have been 
among them, for they were the first Ameri- 
cans to join the French colors. Here are the 
names : 



THE FOREIGN LEGION 7 

Charles Sweeney, James J. Bach, J. W. 
Ganson, F. Wilson, D. W. King, William 
Thaw, J. J. Casey, J. Stewart Carstairs, E. 
Towle, Paul Rockwell, KifBn Rockwell, F. 
W. Zinn, R. Soubirain, E. H. Towle, H. 
Lincoln Chatkoff, George Casmeze, Edgar J. 
Bouligny, Bob Scanlon, Dennis Dowd, 
George Del Peuch, Charles A. Beaumont, F. 
Morlae, A. Segar, F. Capdevielle, Charles 
Trinkard, F. Landreux, Bert Hall. 

From Paris we were sent to Rouen. 
While waiting there we had our first taste 
of what was coming later. We were about 
seven hundred, garrisoned in an old machine 
shop. We slept on a brick floor, underneath 
the benches, and, as we had very little straw, 
the floor seemed pretty hard. We received 
our first uniforms which were known as fa- 
tigue uniforms. They were made of duck, 
pretty hard and scratchy, but answered the 
purpose. We also enjoyed our mess, as 
most of the boys were used to high living 
and, after the hard work that we were doing, 
a can of soup and a chunk of tough beef 



8 ''EN UAIRr 

tasted pretty good. Here I also discovered 
that it does not take long to harden a tender 
stomach. 

We had been at Rouen four days when 
we received orders to join our regiment at 
Toulouse. The trip was a novel one for 
most of the boys. We spent the fifty-five 
hours of the journey in ordinary box-cars, 
about thirty-five to fifty men in a car. These 
French box-cars are only twenty feet long, 
so you can imagine that we were a little 
crowded during those two days and three 
nights. There v/as no straw or hay, only the 
hard boards to sleep on, but all the boys 
seemed contented. 

At Toulouse we detrained and awaited the 
arrival of our regiment from Morocco. This 
regiment is called the Deuxieme Regiment 
Estranger. We sure opened our eyes when 
they arrived, all nationalities and colors. 
We soon made friends, however, and got 
along nicely. Most of them were hard cus- 
tomers; they would steal anything from a 
cancelled postage stamp to a modern dread- 
nought. 




WILLIAM THAW 



THE FOREIGN LEGION g 

This Foreign Legion dates back to l8l2. 
It was formed in Morocco because most of 
the members would not be permitted to 
live anywhere else. They were murderers, 
robbers and crooks of all descriptions. So 
they were kept in Morocco where they could 
only work on each other. They were very 
good fighters, and, of course, kept in train- 
ing, as they were continually fighting hostile 
bands of natives. These poor devils were 
nearly all killed off in France the first 
eighteen months of the war. This regiment 
was 4,000 strong, while an ordinary French 
regiment has about 2,000 men. I have 
learned since that it has been reorganized 
twelve times, which means that some forty 
thousand men have fought in it, practically 
every man killed or made prisoner. 

We were put into the Foreign Legion to 
fill up the vacancies caused by some i,8oo 
Germans who were left in Morocco. The 
Foreign Legion was very popular with Ger- 
man and Austrian subjects, who preferred 
it to their own armies. Once in the 



10 ''EN LAIRr 

Estranger^ you were safe, they could not take 
you out. One was never asked any questions 
as to his origin. One could choose his own 
name. There were a few non-commissioned 
officers in the Legion with such names as 
Wagner and Friedman. They were good 
soldiers and have all been killed since in ac- 
tion. 

Our financial affairs were the least of our 
troubles, I can assure you. We were paid 
every ten days, and they had us sign a re- 
ceipt for the dime every time, just as if we 
were getting a million dollars out of a bank, 
instead of one cent a day, which was the pay 
we received at the beginning. If a soldier 
was issued a sack of tobacco, then he drew 
only seven cents on pay day instead of ten. 
We had been reading in the newspapers 
about the high cost of living and Billy Thaw 
said to me : 

''I don't see why they complain, when 
they can go to the front and die on a cent a 
day." 

About a year and a half ago the pay was 



THE FOREIGN LEGION u 

raised, and the simple soldat or private in 
the French infantry gets five cents a day, a 
corporal gets 25 cents ; a sergeant, 50 cents ; 
a Second Lieutenant $32.00 per month; a 
First Lieutenant about $45.00; and a cap- 
tain $65.00 per month. In the aviation a 
corporal pilot gets fifty cents per day; a 
sergeant $1.50; Second Lieutenant about 
$140.00. Officers get double indemnity for 
flying, a non-commissioned man gets $1.00 
and an officer $2.00 per day extra for doing 
the same work; a First Lieutenant about 
$152.00, and a captain about $190.00. You 
pay for your own keep and dress yourself, 
so as a matter of fortune you won't get rich, 
even in the Aviation Corps. 

Our training at Toulouse was short, but 
very severe. It consisted principally of bay- 
onet practice, shooting and field maneuver- 
ing. There were a few long marches which 
was the easiest part, notwithstanding 
our seventy-pound load. We Americans 
trimmed up pretty well at the end. Some of 
the boys fell by the wayside owing to physi- 



12 ''EN LAIRr 

cal disabilities. On the day of departure 
for the front I think we only left two or three 
behind. 



CHAPTER II 



AT THE FRONT 



The day we entrained at Toulouse to go 
to the front everybody was happy. We had 
no idea where we were going, but we were 
on our way! The trip in the box-cars lasted 
about sixty hours, when we found ourselves 
at Camp de Mailly. This camp was a big 
one and close to the front, so that we Ameri- 
cans were introduced for the first time to ac- 
tual fighting conditions. And they sure did 
give us some strenuous work-outs. We soon 
learned why the French railroads number 
the hours from i to 24, and say 13 o'clock in- 
stead of 1 o'clock. And we worked right 
through from 1 o'clock on Monday morning 
until 24 o'clock on Saturday night. 

Here, at Camp de Mailly, we received 
our first promotion. We were made first- 

13 



14 "£i\^ UAIRr 

class soldiers because of our marksmanship. 
In shooting practice we very seldom ever 
missed the bull's eye. That is, Bach, Thaw, 
Sweeney and myself. This entitles you to 
wear a red stripe on your sleeve, and is quite 
a distinction. Some of the men had been in 
the Foreign Legion for fifteen years and were 
not yet first-class soldiers. 

At Camp de Mailly they got us out 
usually at 5 o'clock in the morning, some- 
times as early as 3. The first thing was 
a five-mile hike to the maneuvering 
grounds. There we would drill for a couple 
of hours and then go on a sort of scouting 
expedition over the hills, always through 
brush and forests. They split us up and we 
would have half our force, the right, as op- 
posing troops. Then each force would try 
to get the advantage of the other and attack. 
By this method we were taught how to pro- 
tect ourselves. The country was uneven and 
the brush very thick. All this was great 
sport for our officers who were mounted, but 
for us, not so sporty. We were the goats. 



AT. THE FRONT 15 

Doing this over thirty miles of rough 
terrain is not sport, and nothing to eat until 
you finished. We used to clear up a spot in 
the forest and put up our tents just to see 
how well they looked. Then we would take 
them down again and hike out for camp. 

Most of our drilling was conducted by an 
adjutant, the highest non-commissioned offi- 
cer in the French Army. He has more au- 
thority than a captain in the American Army, 
and you won't be leary of these boys because 
they are tough customers, and would put 
you in jail for six months if they choose, and 
no questions asked. 

It was here that we learned about the cus- 
tom in the Foreign Legion of having a com- 
rade de combat. He is a sort of fighting side- 
partner. You and he are supposed to stay 
together always during action. The com- 
rade de combat assigned to me was an Italian 
by the name of Conti. He told me that he 
had been out of jail only nine days during 
the last eight years. Before joining the 
Legion he had been a bicycle thief to begin 



i6 ''EN^ LAIRr 

with. He said that this did not pay him well 
enough, so he took up grave-robbing, and 
found that a much more profitable business. 
I made him believe that I was a much worse 
character than he was, so we got on fine. In 
fact, Conti and I became great friends before 
our training at Camp de Mailly was over. 

Conti used to steal my knife on an average 
of twice a week, and would very probably 
try to sell it back to me the day following. 
On one occasion, in particular, I had received 
some chocolates from a young lady in 
Switzerland. As I did not want to open the 
package in the afternoon that I received it 
(all of my comrades would have wanted a 
piece and sweets are very rare), I hid my 
chocolates in my knapsack. Between the 
time I received it and night, it disappeared. 
Conti was sleeping peacefully, but I felt as 
though he had my chocolates. As we all car- 
ried big knives at that time I put my knife 
against his neck and awakened him and 
said : 

''Conti, give me my chocolates." , 



AT THE FRONT 17 

He produced them. Stealing was second 
nature with most of these men. 

One morning we were ordered to get 
ready to leave camp. At last we were or- 
dered to start for the big show! All the 
Americans in the Legion were in pretty good 
shape by this time, but at that the first 
marches seemed hard to us. One hundred 
and sixty kilometers in four days, or about 
twenty-five miles per day. It doesn't sound 
long if you say it fast, but with a seventy- 
pound load to carry it is different. Some of 
the boys had sore feet and suffered very 
much, but they were game and hung on. 
They did better than some of the old timers. 
Bill Thaw suffered most. His feet were 
swollen up like Zeppelins, and they were 
not like Cinderella's feet at the beginning, 
either. But he stuck it out, game old Bill. 

At last, after passing through a totally 
devastated country, with absolutely nothing 
left standing and thousands of graves every- 
where, we commenced to realize the serious- 
ness of the war. This country had been torn 



i8 ''EN LAIRr 

to pieces by the Huns as they retreated. 
People in America cannot realize the devas- 
tation in France until it is possible for them 
to see it. You will find cities of ten thou- 
sand up to thirty-five thousand population 
where it is impossible for you to discover a 
trace that a town has ever existed. tThere; 
will be great difficulties in France after the 
war, for people locating their property, as 
there are absolutely no landmarks; and all 
records have been destroyed in these cities, 
so that they have no means whatever of 
tracing or locating their property. 

Several times at night we would be 
aroused by German raiders, small groups of 
seven to fifteen Germans who had been cut 
off and were caught inside the French lines. 
As this country is all wooded they kept in 
hiding during the day and came out on raid- 
ing parties at night to get something to eat. 
They caused a great deal of annoyance to 
us, as French troops were often ambushed by 
these bands, many of which were cavalry. 
We found one German soldier hiding in a 




ihMi^^^^^iiiiii'iiH'iif"»iiii?;iiiMttnilA p^'»*'^'ii<i** ^ 




BERT HALL RETURNING FROM PATROL 

Taken by a comrade. Clouds very low, an idea of desolation on the 
battle front. 



AZ THE FRONT^ 19 

chimney who had an arm shot off. He had 
plastered mud on the stump and it was heal- 
ing very well. He was afraid to surrender 
as he thought he would be killed. I believe 
it was three months before they were all cap- 
tured. 

After detouring a great deal we finally ar- 
rived at the front line near the Aisne, about 
3 o'clock one afternoon. The place was Ver- 
zenay, near Rheims. We remained three 
days at Verzenay, without much sport of any 
kind outside of catching a spy who was sig- 
naling to the Germans with a light. No 
need to tell what happened to him. 

On the morning of the fourth day we were 
ordered out of Verzenay and that same night 
arrived at Cuery des Chaudes Arbres, near 
Craonne and Cromwell, where there had 
been quite a bit of fighting recently. Our 
company was chosen as advance guard and 
we started out to find the Germans, but they 
found us first. Here we got under fire for 
the first time. The Boches had sent an aero- 
plane over us and when it had signaled back 



20 ''EN LAIRr 

the firing began. They did pretty well, too, 
as they were shooting at about four miles 
distance and we were behind some hills. 
Some of the shells came very close, but the 
boys didn't seem to mind them much. Shells 
are not so bad if kept at a certain distance, 
but very unpleasant if too close. Bill Thaw 
used to say when one came whizzing past: 

"Wish I was home," and then we would 
all forget it until the next one came along. 

During this, our first experience under 
German artillery fire, it was amusing to 
watch the actions of the men. We were in 
open country, mostly sugar beet fields, and 
I saw men get down on their hands and 
knees and put their heads under the beet 
leaves. As long as they could not see out 
they felt perfectly safe. While we were 
marching up there were about fifteen of us 
posted as an advanced guard. Among them 
was one of our short-legged friends whom I 
will not mention by name, and he was very 
much inconvenienced by the German shell- 
fire. We were marching in single file, as in 



AT THE FRONT 21 

that manner you are not as easily detected 
as if marching in larger formation. Jimmie 
Bach and I walked up alongside of this 
friend of ours and when we did so, he began 
to walk faster. We would increase our gait, 
keep up with him, then he would slow up 
and then we would slow up. Finally, he 
said : 

''Go ahead; don't you know the Germans 
can see us easier when there are two or three 
together?" 

We said: ''We don't care.'' 

We were about four miles from the Ger- 
man lines at that time. With this same 
young fellow we had some very amusing ex- 
periences later on in the trenches. As soon 
as he got there he seemed to have lost a great 
deal of his fighting spirit. The first thing 
that happened to him was that he could not 
see in the trenches. Then he got rheuma- 
tism, but was finally placed as telephone 
operator, and afterwards he was sent to Mo- 
rocco for reasons unknown. One day, after 
a very heavy bombardment when we had 



22 ''EN UAIRr 

lost quite a few of the boys, he came up to 
us for sympathy. No one would sympathize 
with him. Finally, as a last resort, he looked 
up one of our German corporals, by the name 
of Wiedman. He was very busy working 
on one of our dug-outs that had been dam- 
aged by shell-fire and he said to this old 
German : 

'This war is terrible, isn't it? So and so 
has just been killed." 

The old corporal, without stopping his 
work, turned to him and said : 

''Oh, that's nothing. It's probably your 
turn next." 

And at that he almost fainted. There 
were very few of this type among us and it 
didn't take long to get rid of them. 

It was nearly dark on the day that we 
finally arrived at our post, and then we had 
a march of over four miles to the trenches 
which had been assigned to us. The mud 
was up to our knees. During the march 
Jimmy Bach and I pulled one of our short- 
legged friends for two miles through the 



^AT THE FRONT 23 

mud. Some pull. We finally got him there 
all right. We piled into the trenches about 
10 o'clock that night, and the regiment we 
relieved seemed glad to get out. 

The trenches were a new game for us. 
We couldn't see a thing, and we didn't 
know in what direction or how far the Ger- 
mans were from us. As a matter of fact we 
were too tired to do much investigating just 
then. Almost the first thing we received or- 
ders not to talk or smoke. That was tough 
we thought. We didn't want to talk and 
we didn't mind being shot at, but not to 
smoke was too much. Naturally, being 
worn out, we all went to sleep. I was chosen 
as sentinel in our trench and I looked around 
for the Germans. I could not see any, so I 
decided I would sleep a little, too. We had 
left our guns up on the parapet. I draped 
myself on top of my pals and had about 
started to go to sleep when I thought it 
would be best to take the guns down for 
fear the Germans might come up and steal 
them. I did this and felt much easier in my 



24 ''EN UAIRr 

mind. Once I was awakened by a shell that 
came screaming over our heads. Then the 
breakfast call, but no breakfast. 

The trenches had been very hastily made 
so we started out the first day to improve 
them. Believe me, you can dig some when 
the shells are falling all around and your 
digging is very essential to your health. 
The German lines were about nine hundred 
yards away. 

During our first morning in the trenches 
a few of us were called out to shoot at some 
Germans who were chopping wood. Back 
of their lines, probably twelve hundred yards 
from our trenches, they continued to chop, 
and did not seem to mind our fire at all. 
Finally we decided they were too far away 
to do any damage so we went back into our 
trenches without getting any results. 

During the day we were very heavily 
shelled, and, of course, we lost a few men. 
We continued our work, however, until we 
had very good trenches and very comfortable 
ones, well covered and dry. We remained 



'AT THE FRONT 25 

in these trenches for the first period of eight 
days, and lost only a few of our boys. Then 
fresh troops were moved in and we went 
out. 

In the trenches, we spent our time read- 
ing, talking and sleeping when possible. 
Also killing to-tos. We could not play cards 
as cards were scarce and we had no money. 
Playing cards without money is not a man's 
game. We used to talk mostly about eating. 
That sure was our most popular subject. As 
soon as you mentioned something good to 
eat, someone would tell you to shut up, not 
to talk about such things as we would never 
eat again, and we did almost get out of the 
habit. 

The to-tos were our most popular form of 
sport, at first. That's the French name for 
them, and some people call them seam-squir- 
rels, or just plain vermin. I think the to-tos 
must be of German descent, as each one car- 
ries an Iron Cross on his back. 

They get to be pretty good-sized if per- 
mitted to thrive. We had nothing to kill 



26 "EiV UAIRr 

them with so in a few days we had some 
good big ones. We used to have names for 
them, such as Gyp the Blood, for they were 
always bent on murdering some one by de- 
grees. I had one I called Lefty Louie be- 
cause he limped; he had a bad left leg. I 
could feel his limp when he walked. We 
were also bothered by rats. When we first 
saw a rat we used to feed him, but soon we 
found that we had made a mistake. Almost 
over night they were with us by the thou- 
sand. They would eat your shoes and run 
all over you at night. Betv/een the rats and 
the to-tos there was little sleep to be had. 
However, we were all very well satisfied 
with trench life. Things began to wake up 
about 1 130 in the morning with the kitchen 
detail. This was made up of a corporal and 
from seven to eleven men. They were de- 
tailed to go back to the kitchen, which was 
about four and a half miles in the rear, to 
carry up the food for the day, coffee, cold 
meat and bread. Each man got half a loaf 
of bread, a big slice of meat, and one pint 



AT THE FRONT 27 

of coffee. We had to carry this for four and 
a half miles in mud up to our knees, dark 
as it possibly could be, and if by any accident 
you slipped and fell, one hundred and fifty 
men didn't eat. We had to watch our steps 
or else get abused by our comrades. Being 
in pretty good health I was generally chosen 
to carry the bread. Seventy-five loaves 
weighing two pounds each, in a large sack, 
was some job twice a day. You never know 
what you can do until you try. 



CHAPTER III 

IN THE TRENCHES 

Life in the trenches isn't all carrying 
bread by day or killing to-tos by night. We 
very soon learned that. 

We had hardly got used to it when my 
squad was chosen for advance guard work. 
I could give a technical description of it, but 
it consists of standing in a hole half full of 
water for thirteen hours, one hundred and 
fifty yards in advance of the trenches in No 
Man's Land. You are to signal anything 
that happens during the night. Bill Thaw, 
Bach, Landreaux, Charles Ollinger, Stewart 
Carstairs, Corporal Morlae and myself were 
chosen for duty the same night. It passed, 
however, with nothing of any note. We 
could see the Germans putting up wire en- 
tanglements, but they were near their own 

28 



IN THE TRENCHES 29 

lines. We were instructed not to shoot until 
ordered. So, without a general order, which 
was given sometimes, we went out on scout- 
ing parties of only four or five men. If we 
had been permitted to shoot we would have 
been killed by some of our own men, as we 
were in front of our own trenches. The Ger- 
mans, as long as they were near their own 
trenches, did us no harm. The artillery did 
all that kind of shooting. We were only 
there to repel an attack on our trenches, or 
to carry out one on the Boche trenches, and to 
signal any movement the Germans might 
make. 

It was about 3 o'clock one morning, I 
should think, when our squad got out into 
No Man's Land. We very soon saw six 
shadowy objects moving near the German 
lines. They were obscured by some brush, 
and every one was sure it was a German at- 
tack. They all wanted to shoot, but I in- 
sisted it was not wise. If we had fired we 
would have been fired upon by our own com- 
rades and killed. I had some difficulty in 



30 ''EN LAIRr 

making them desist from shooting but suc- 
ceeded. As the objects came nearer we dis- 
covered that they were six cows! Morlae 
went out to see if they were accompanied by 
any Germans, as they sometimes used things 
like this for a blind. As Morlae approached, 
he was attacked by a gentleman cow in the 
party and beat a hasty retreat back. The 
cows were the only enemy we sighted all 
night. 

Toward 5 o'clock we were to go back 
to our trenches and we started promptly. I 
happened to be the last, and as I was going 
across the open ground I was fired upon. 
When I stopped to see what the trouble was 
I felt a breeze on my face and realized it was 
another bullet going by, intended for me. 
It came from our lines to the left. They 
thought I was a German. I decided very 
quickly to lie flat on the ground, and com- 
menced to fire back. I thought if they 
wanted to fight I would accommodate them 
as I was there for that purpose. An officer 
appeared on the scene and stopped our little 



IN THE TRENCHES 31 

war. I crawled to the trenches and was con- 
gratulated by my pals for having carried off 
the honors by firing the last shot. 

We had another night or two of quiet, 
when a new sensation developed — a peculiar 
creeping sensation, sort of itchy. It was our 
old friends the to-tos, now too numerous to 
be funny. Millions of them, and absolutely 
no relief in any way; no change of clothing 
nor disinfectant of any kind. They are ter- 
rible, one cannot rest or sleep a moment. I 
discovered one remedy that would give re- 
lief for a few moments at a time. I had on 
three shirts and when the to-tos got well as- 
sembled on the inner one I would change it, 
putting it on the outside. This kept them 
hustling to make the trip down and up on 
the inside, which took them almost an hour. 
I would sleep during that time. Some of 
the boys went insane from the vermin; you 
cannot imagine how terrible they are. We 
suffered, too, very much for the want of 
cigarettes, which is one of the most essential 
things to a soldier. I much preferred a cigar- 



32 ''EN LAIRr 

ette to a meal during some of the days in the 
trenches, and both were scarce. 

We were generally called out two or three 
times a night for an attack that never came 
off. I was always glad, for Stewart Car- 
stairs, the only one who had cigarettes, 
would say : 

''Bertie, let's have a smoke as we might be 
killed and this may be our last." 

I said yes, and would crawl in and smoke. 
I was always glad when an attack was sig- 
naled as I was sure of a cigarette. 

On the eighth day we left our trenches for 
the two-day rest period. They called it a 
'Vest," and it was a fine one — march all night 
in the mud, arrive at 7 o'clock in the morn- 
ing, sleep in the mud, then dig trenches until 
dark; do this for two days, get bombarded 
just the same as in the front-line trenches. 
On the night of the second day we were off 
again to some new trenches which had to be 
strengthened. We were continually shelled 
and bitten by to-tos. This new trench sys- 
tem was called Picadilly Circus. It was 



IN THE TRENCHES 33 

some network, more complicated than the 
streets of Paris dare be. You would get lost 
very easily if you could not see the marks. 
Afterwards we marked them all with names 
Jike streets. We built up these trenches also, 
which seemed to be a sort of pastime for us. 
They were about five feet deep, three feet 
wide at bottom and two feet wide at top, 
covered over with big timbers or anything 
we could find, and about two feet of dirt on 
top of that. There were port-holes for our 
guns. It requires three men per yard on the 
front to do this work, so you can imagine 
how many men it requires for the six hun- 
dred and seventy-five kilometers of front in 
France. 

The Picadilly Circus trench system was 
built under very trying conditions, and our 
troops suffered heavily from shell-fire. 
Probably forty per cent, were killed. In the 
particular trench where Jimmie Bach and 
myself were, we had a sort of a rise just 
where we went out. So one day we decided 
to dig that out. Jimmie got his pick and 



34 ''EN uimr 

started to dig. About the second stroke, he 
picked out part of a human head. So we 
decided we'd leave it there. 

While we were in these trenches we lost a 
great many men. We used to go out and 
bury them at night. It was very easy as our 
cemetery was in a big bank just back of the 
trenches. So we would just dig a notch in 
the bank and bury them standing up. It was 
much easier than digging an ordinary grave. 

While we were here the first snow fell. 
Bill Thaw and I decided to catch a few rab- 
bits, as we were hungry; so we proceeded to 
go out and find some wire to make snares. 
The only wire available was a small tele- 
phone wire used in the trenches. So we tore 
down the telephone line to make rabbit 
traps, and we heard the results of our de- 
molishing the telephone line, but in language 
that cannot be expressed here. 

We lost about as many men by shell-fire 
when in repose as we did when in the 
trenches, as there was absolutely no protec- 
tion for us. One gets used to those things. 



IN THE TRENCHES 35 

sort of a matter of fact. When one Hears the 
shells coming there is not much danger; it's 
the ones you don't hear that get you. Then, 
too, you can get trained so as to be able to 
tell about where a shell is going to fall. By 
listening one can hear them coming quite a 
distance; they make a noise like a hot iron 
being thrust into water. Small shells make 
very little noise ; it is only four-inch or larger 
that make much noise going through the air. 
The actual explosion is not as terrible as one 
would imagine. Some of the German 
Krupps had four distinct explosions. They 
were constructed in such a manner as to ex- 
plode at very short intervals, which made 
them more effective than ordinary shells. 

This life of ours in the Foreign Legion 
continued until winter came on. Early in 
November the very cold weather began with 
five inches of snow. This added a new hard- 
ship, for some of the boys got frozen feet and 
suffered very much. We did not have any 
medicines, only opium pills and iodine. No 
matter what your ailment was, you got one 



36 ''EN LAIRr 

or the other. We were pretty short on food 
in these days, too. I do not know the reason 
for this, but during November I can tell you 
that we didn't overeat. 

As the weeks went by, with constant fight- 
ing. No Man's Land between our lines and 
the German trenches became a terrible place 
to look upon. There were many dead, both 
French and German, some of whom had lain 
there four or five months. It is a black pic- 
ture, that landscape full of shell-holes, 
which, in turn, were often full of what were 
once the poor devils who faced each other, 
who went over and never came back. But 
the Legion didn't fare any worse than the 
other regiments, and war is war. 

From the 17th of October until the mid- 
dle of December, I never washed my face 
and hands. I never had my shoes off and no 
change of clothing of any sort. But I used 
to shave regularly, as I never could stand 
whiskers. We had coffee brought up in the 
morning about 3 a.m. and as I never drank 
coffee I used to use mine to make lather and 



IN THE TRENCHES 37 

shave. Some days we had absolutely noth- 
ing to eat. There was no drinking water to 
be had, as there were numerous dead lying 
all over the country. 

Until December 14th, 1914, I remained 
with the Legion. Then three of us were 
transferred into the aviation. Bill Thaw, 
James Bach and myself. 



CHAPTER IV. 

TRAINING IN THE AVIATION CORPS 

We jumped right into our new work in 
the Aviation Corps. It was what we had 
wanted right along, so there were no heart- 
breaks on our side when we bade a fond fare- 
well to the Foreign Legion that 14th day of 
December, 1914. A lot of my pals were no 
longer where I could say good-bye to them 
anyhow. Many of the boys were already 
buried God knows where. And we never 
did know what happened to others. I had 
long ago lost sight of Conti, my comrade de 
combat. I am sure, however, if he has been 
taken prisoner that he will steal all the 
Kaiser's decorations eventually. 

Aviation, we soon discovered, is a whole 
lot more than flying. Our experience 
showed that time, and a heap of it, is re- 

38 



TRAINING IN AVIATION CORPS 39 

quired to develop the men and to make an 
efBcient corps. To say nothing of millions. 
Aviation is really two organizations, and 
they are kept separate : 

( 1 ) The front fighting units. 

(2) Schools of entrainment. 

At the front, aviation is divided into five 
separate branches. First, machines that 
regulate artillery fire. Second, bombarding 
machines. Third, photographing. Fourth, 
reconnoitering. Fifth, the fighting ma- 
chines. 

The front fighting units are under the 
:ommand of the General Headquarters Staff, 
like other branches of the army. The schools 
of entrainment are directed by the depart- 
ment of the Minister of War. Naturally 
v^e went to school first, for our A B C's. And 
it was about the tightest little school we 
could hope to see. Our course of training 
began at once. I was put on a small mono- 
plane which had a 20-horse-power motor. 
The wings of the plane had been clipped. 
About all I did at first was to roll around on 
the ground. 



40 "EN^ LAIRr 

Very soon, however, I was able to make 
the old thing go in straight lines, and then I 
felt that I was a sure-enough flyer. It wasn't 
so easy at that, for it is very difficult even 
for an old hand with these short-winged ma- 
chines. When a man shows some improve- 
ment at this kind of practice he is given a 
higher-powered machine. With this he can 
roll along at about sixty miles an hour. 

When your man is capable of handling 
this new machine properly, he is sent along 
to a full-grown one, equipped with a 25- 
horse-power motor. In this he can get up a 
few feet. Then he does some straight line 
work until he is sent along to the next class, 
which trains in a machine that will get up 
about fifty feet. Now he begins to get the 
feel of the air. He is perfected in this work 
until he is easy doing it, and his confidence 
begins to come. For his next step, he is 
given a 6-cylinder, 45-horse-power machine. 
In this he branches out a bit, doing more 
straight lines, and learns to turn. He also 
does figure eights, and gets up to about three 
hundred feet. 



TRAINING IN AVIATION CORPS 41 

Now you think you are sure some aviator, 
and they put you into a 50-horse-power 
plane. It's five hundred feet up for you 
then, and you practise doing spirals with 
the motor stopped. The last stage in the 
proceedings is an 8o-horse-power machine 
where you train until you go for your mili- 
tary license. 

The test for your license consists of one 
voyage in a straight line to a specified point 
and return, about 100 miles in all. Then, 
after that, you do a triangle of 200 miles, 
passing two specified points. Your next 
stunt is to stay one hour at above 7,000 feet 
elevation. This terminates your training 
for a military license. If the man who has 
done this successfully proves also to be an 
apt flyer he is picked for a fighting pilot. If 
not, he is sent out on a two-seater which is 
slower and easier to fly. If chosen for a 
fighter, he is trained on the rapid machines 
and when perfected is sent to the acrobatic 
school where they are taught all sorts of 
stunts, such as looping, vrilleor, tailwing 



42 ''EN, VAmr 

slips, and all the modern stunts. This train- 
ing is very essential, for it enables an aviator 
to protect himself in combat. 

Now comes the fighting part of your train- 
ing. Each man, as soon as he is fit, is sent on 
to the shooting school where they shoot at a 
moving target which is towed by an armored 
motor boat at fifty miles per hour, also he is 
trained to shoot at small balloons and at 
moving pictures. Here he uses the same 
type machine which is used at the front. 
When he is perfected here he is sent to the 
superior ecole de perfectionmenf^ which is lo- 
cated in the army zone. From there he is 
sent on to the front. And I assure you these 
men are capable of defending themselves. 
This course requires about six months. 

All the training for the first three months 
is done on monoplanes, no double controls 
being used as the men are learning alone. 
They get to go gradually and have much 
more confidence, and turn out to be much 
better pilots. Both systems have been tried, 
but this is by far the better. We did not get 



TRAINING IN^ AVIATIOK CORPS 43 

the advantage of this modern training as it 
did not exist in our days. 

Bill Thaw and I were assigned to an esca- 
drille, the regular formation of which con- 
sisted of six machines. They were rigged up 
so as to require twelve men, six pilots and 
six observers, one of each for each of the ma- 
chines. Of course these machines weren't 
what we have to-day. As a matter of fact 
they took about one hour to climb to six 
thousand feet and were equipped with a ma- 
chine gun. We also carried four thousand 
arrows, which were made fast on the landing 
chassis in cases that could be opened by a 
lever by the observer. We found that they 
were very efficient against troops or convoys 
on the roads. 

I went immediately to St. Cyr, which was 
the headquarters of those days. Thaw fol- 
lowed a short time later, and after a few 
days Jimmy Bach joined us. 

Upon my arrival at St. Cyr, I had no pa- 
pers of any sort. I went directly to the Com- 
mander's office and he asked me who I was. 



44 ''BN, UAIRr 

So I told him that I was an aviator. He 
looked through his papers and said he had 
no record of me. 

'It is not my fault. I am here." 
''All right/' he said, and put my name on 
the books. I was sent out to the store-room, 
rigged out with a complete outfit, which 
none of the rest of the boys were fortunate 
enough to get. That is the result of being 
the fast talker. And at that time there was 
not as much organization in the French Fly- 
ing Corps as there soon was. 

We started training on Caudrons. These 
machines were used for regulating artillery 
fire and reconnoitering work. They were 
fair, not very speedy, but good climbers and 
good for doing stunts. Owing to a slight 
mishap I was transferred to Avor, one of 
the largest training camps in France. Thaw 
remained in St. Cyr. I flew a Farman bi- 
plane here. We progressed very slowly, 
owing to the shortage of machines. Many 
amusing incidents happened to us here; but 
very few were fatal. Such things as one 



TRAINING IN AVIATION CORPS 45 

machine landing on top of another and run- 
ning into the hangars. Turning over was a 
daily occurrence and, strange to say, it was 
always the fault of the machine according 
to the young flyer. 

One of the most amusing spectacles that 
I witnessed was a fellow on a roller. That 
is a machine that cannot fly. The motor 
stopped quite a way from the hangars. So 
he decided to start it himself. He climbed 
on the machine and started the motor. The 
machine started off so quickly that he did 
not have time to get in, and it made directly 
for the hangars. Then it changed directions 
just before arriving. It proceeded to run 
all over the field, causing everybody to run 
high until it finally ended up by running 
into a hangar and doing about ten thousand 
dollars damage to machines that were on the 
inside. 



CHAPTER V 

THE LAFAYETTE ESCADRILLE 

Bill Thaw was the first of us to get off 
to the front, but I was there soon afterwards. 
Then it was that our real stunts began, and 
they came thick and fast as soon as the 
weather permitted. 

Our organization, which was first known 
as the American Escadrille, was due to Nor- 
man Prince and no one else, in my opinion. 
We continued to call it the American Esca- 
drille until the American Ambassador, Mr. 
Sharpe, asked us to change the name. He 
feared that our Government would object 
to the use of the name American. Then it 
was called the Lafayette Escadrille. All 
Americans were sent to this escadrille, and 
we fought together, never being split up to 
fight in sections. 

46 



THE LAFAYETTE ESCADRILLE 47 

Thaw at first joined an escadrille near 
Lunevielle called the C 46. Bill spent about 
a year there, was made a sub-lieutenant and 
was mentioned in the Army Orders. In 
April, 1915, Norman Prince, Elliot Cowden 
and Curtiss came over. They had heard of 
Thaw, Bach and myself, who were in the 
Flying Corps, and came over to join. That 
was the beginning of the Lafayette Esca- 
drille. 

Very soon Bach, Prince, Cowden, Curtiss 
and myself were sent to Pau and put on 
Bleriot monoplanes. Prince was the first to 
finish, but he waited for Cowden and Cur- 
tiss, who were going on Voisin bombarding 
machines. The three went to Avor to train. 
Bach and I stayed at Pau, as we could not go 
on the Voisins. We continued to train on 
Bleriots, Morans and Caudrons until we 
were sent to the General Reserve near Paris. 
We continued our training on Caudrons 
there until we were detailed to train observ- 
ers for artillery work in the region of Paris. 
This was very interesting. Dummy bat- 



48 ''EN UAIRr 

teries were placed in different spots. We 
would take the men and fly over as the men 
located the batteries and marked them on 
their maps. We amused ourselves at this 
for a time. We were then asked to go on 
the Nieuports, the first fighting machines 
brought out. Bach and I had the distinc- 
tion of being two of the first twenty Nieu- 
port flyers in France. The Nieuport was 
considered a very dangerous and difficult 
machine to fly, owing to its small wing 
spread. We found them excellent, and more 
stable than any machine we had yet used. 
Bach and I got along fine and were soon off 
with an escadrille of Nieuports, the N 38, in 
Champagne, near Chalons sur Marne. 

In the meantime Prince and Cowden had 
gone to the V.B.103 in the north of France. 
Curtiss was left behind, owing to physical 
defects. He had quite an amusing experi- 
ence while training at Avor. He was a 
blond, rather tall and wore glasses, a slight 
German resemblance. (I mean no offense 
to the man.) While on a cross-country trip 



THE LAFAYETTE ESCADRILLE 49 

his machine took fire, as they frequently did. 
He was forced to land near a village and 
started throwing dirt on the fire. When the 
peasants arrived they took him for a Ger- 
man, and, as he could speak very little 
French, he was taken to the village jail and 
held until Prince came to his rescue two days 
later. Since then I have not heard of him. 
Prince did some long-distance bombard- 
ments, as did Cowden. He was credited 
with bringing down a Boche on one of these 
flights. They both received the Croix de 
Guerre. 

Bach and I were in Champagne with Cap- 
tain Bouche, one of the finest Frenchmen I 
ever have known. He did as much flying, 
if not more, than any man in the French 
Aviation. Lieutenant D. Harcourt, another 
fine man with whom I spent a year, later be- 
came the Commandant of the escadrille. 
Lieutenant Harteaux was also one of my 
comrades. He has since brought down 
twenty-two Boches. Bertin, who is one of 
the oldest flyers in France, Sergeant Mangot, 



50 ''EN UAIRr 

who was taken prisoner with Bach, Adjutant 
Bayer, who was killed during the Battle of 
Verdun — all belonged to the escadrille. 

Our work consisted in reconnoitering 
twice daily; sometimes we went as far as 
sixty miles back of the German lines, kept 
tab on all movements of troops, activity on 
the railroads, concentration of material and 
any new earthworks — everything that was 
going on. We also had two barrages a day 
to do. That consists of patroling the lines 
to keep the German fliers from regulating 
their artillery fire. This work was very in- 
teresting, as we found a number of Germans 
and fixed them plenty. We also did photo- 
graphing. The artillery fire is regulated by 
two-seated machines equipped with wireless 
capable of sending up to seven miles. The 
machine doing the regulating generally gets 
over the objective. About the third shot will 
hit the target, after they have received our 
wireless. 

Aviators all keep an official book, in which 
we record every flight. This book is in- 



THE LAFAYETTE ESCADRILLE 51 

spected monthly, stamped and signed by the 
Commander. I think I can give the best idea 
of our work by quoting some entries from 
my book. 

In Champagne, before preparation for at- 
tacks of September, 1915: 

September 7th. Reconnoissance, Lieu- 
tenant Amrich, observer, depart 8 a.m., re- 
turn 10 A.M. Route, Dontrien Pont Forgere 
Perthe Bethneyville and return. Very heav- 
ily shelled over Pont Forgere; nothing of 
importance signaled. Maximum height, 
3,400 meters or 11,100 feet; duration one 
hour and fifty-one minutes. 

September 8th. Same reconnoissance, 
nothing signaled; duration, one hour and 
fifty minutes. 

September 9th. Reconnoissance. Lieu- 
tenant Bonnvay, observer; route Souain, 
Sommepy, Senide, LefRncourt, Frinse, June- 
ville Bethneyville, Aubrive. Duration, two 
hours and seven minutes. Height, 3,400 
meters. 

September 1 oth. Barrage, my mechanic as 



52 ''EN LAIRr 

gunner. Met a German Aviatik over Mour- 
mellon; attacked him and forced him down 
into his lines. Duration two hours; height 
2,600 meters. 

September 13th. Reconnoissance with 
Lieutenant Amrich as observer. Had a shell 
explode near us at 3,200 meters making sev- 
eral holes in our machine, nothing serious. 
Duration two hours and ten minutes. 
Height 3,200 meters. Weather good. 

September 21st. Reconnoissance with 
Captain Bouche as observer. 

Here we had an exciting adventure. We 
received a shell very close and had a piece 
of it weighing about two pounds stick in be- 
tween the elevator and! the fixed surface, 
making it impossible for me to move the com- 
mands. Thanks to the wonderful construc- 
tion of my Nieuport we were able to come 
down safely and made a good landing. The 
duration of this flight was two hours, twelve 
minutes, and our height 3,600 meters. That 
same evening I broke the altitude record for 
a Nieuport with passenger and all equip- 



THE LAP A YETTE ESCADRILLE 53 

ment aboard, making 4,200 meters or 14,100 
feet. 

The anti-aircraft gun has been perfected 
so that at the present time they are capable 
of shooting up to about 33,000 feet. These 
guns are mounted on a table similar to a 
railroad turntable. The bottom of this turn- 
table is a mirror. Above that is a sort of a 
telescopic affair by which they locate ma- 
chines in the air. They do not have to keep 
a watch in the air for machines. As soon as 
a machine comes within shooting range of 
the gun, the machine will be shown in the 
mirror. They have an instrument by which 
they get your exact altitude, also an instru- 
ment by which they find the number of feet 
you are traveling per second. Consequently, 
they time their shell accordingly, which is a 
sharpener used for any aircraft work, and 
sometimes at twenty thousand feet they can 
make you wish you were at home. Our small 
machines are very difBcult to detect in the 
air, as we only have a little more than 
twenty-two feet from wing-tip to wing-tip. 



54 ''EN UAIRr 

They pass out of sight at about ten thousand 
feet. That is, out of sight of the naked eye. 
Other artillery has also been perfected in 
proportion. We have guns ranging from 
the French 75's, which is a three-inch gun, 
up to the 500-millimeter, which is a twenty- 
inch gun. These guns are located anywhere 
from 700 yards up to six and eight miles 
back of the trenches. They are capable of 
shooting from six to twenty-three miles. A 
long-range gun is not the big caliber gun. 
Our long-range guns are 280 millimeter, or 
eleven and one-fifth inches. These guns can 
do very active work at twenty-one and 
twenty-two miles. They are all directed by 
airplane and their accurateness is something 
beyond imagination. They can drop a shell 
in a thousand-yard circle at twenty-one 
miles. They concentrate for bombardments 
at present time from six to ten thousand of 
these guns on a front of five to six 
miles. These bombardments are carried out 
methodically. The first work is for the small 
guns, for destruction of wire entanglements 



THE LAFAYETTE ESCADRILLE 55 

in front of the German trenches. They use 
a special shell for this work, which explodes 
about six inches from the ground. They also 
use something similar to chain shot, such as 
were used in Civil War days. They are two 
guns about twelve feet apart that fire solid 
shots. These shots are connected by about 
three good, big, healthy chains. They pass 
over No Man's Land two to three feet from 
the ground, sweeping out all the wire as they 
go along. After the wire has been destroyed, 
in about two hours, they begin work on the 
German trenches, with the larger calibered 
guns. This will generally take about three 
hours ; all this work is being observed by air- 
plane. When they are sufficiently demol- 
ished, that fire is stopped and the curtain 
barrage begins. This fire starts about sev- 
enty-five yards back of the German trenches. 
The object is to keep the Germans from 
bringing up re-enforcements, and also to 
keep the ones that are left from getting 
away; when our soldiers take the German 
trenches they get all the Germans that are 
left. 



CHAPTER VI 

FLYING AND FIGHTING IN CHAMPAGNE 

My real work was now to begin, as the 
great offensive of 1915 in Champagne was 
on. I got my chance, the thing I had been 
waiting for since the days I was rolling 
around the ground in a clipped-wing ma- 
chine. 

The weather was cloudy the second day 
of the offensive. Everything was in motion 
and we all knew what was coming. A pilot 
was asked for, some one who could do a 
reconnoissance at low altitude. I volun- 
teered with Lieutenant Manigal. We went 
over the enemy lines at 3,000 feet, and were 
immediately attacked by machine guns from 
below. We received a few bullets in the 
machine, and also were attacked by several 
Boches. We had the satisfaction of know- 

56 









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O > 

H ^ 



FLYING IN CHAMPAGNE 57 

ing that we located German re-enforcements, 
and they were bombarded and forced to re- 
treat. It made a most interesting sight. We 
could see the soldiers fighting in the open 
country, although the smoke from the artil- 
lery made this difficult at times. We were 
complimented by our General for this, as our 
information proved to be very valuable. 
The duration of our flight was one hour and 
thirty-nine minutes, and our height 1,000 
meters. 

This reconnoitering work is often very 
dangerous, and several of my pals were made 
prisoners while doing it. You go far back 
of the German lines and risk being made 
prisoner because of possible motor trouble, 
and also by being attacked by German air 
men in groups. They try to cut off your re- 
treat. The anti-aircraft guns are shooting at 
you continually and you are forced to go to 
certain localities to see if any changes are 
being made and to note all movements of 
troops and material. A part of your work is 
to photograph the objectives designated by 
headquarters. 



58 ''EN LAIRr 

Our general programme was something 
like this : 

You are given a fixed portion of the front 
to cover, and receive your orders before leav- 
ing, if there are any special points where an 
attack is going on, you leave your field and 
climb until you reach the lines. Generally 
you are at 10,000 to 14,000 feet by this time. 
You continue to climb as you patrol your 
section of the lines; you keep a close watch 
for Germans above and below. 

We generally climbed up to 18,000 feet or 
more, and continued to watch until we were 
attacked or saw a German below. You slow 
down your motor, try your gun, and down 
you go. If there is more than one enemy 
plane, pick out the nearest and go after him. 
You continue this for two and a half hours, 
when you return to the French field where 
you make out a report of all that has passed. 
Now you are free, you may go where you 
please, until your next turn. In bad 
weather we play games, read and gamble. 
Mostly gamble. Poker and bridge are 



FLYING IN CHAMPA GNE 59 

the two leading pastimes of that kind. 

One morning about 1 1 o'clock a German 
aeroplane came down in volplane and 
landed on one of our aviation fields. The 
pilot, a lieutenant speaking French per- 
fectly, came up to the captain commanding 
the escadrille, and saluted. He asked for 
the loan of some gasoline, saying that they 
had lost all of their gas owing to a leak, but 
if the captain would be so kind as to loan 
some they would continue their journey. Of 
course they were made prisoners. This of- 
ficer told me at once on seeing me that I was 
an American. He said that he had wintered 
in Palm Beach. He seemed to think it nice 
of me to help the French. On another oc- 
casion a fur glove was dropped in our lines. 
A few days later there came another glove 
with a note, saying, that the finder might as 
well have the pair. 

I brought down a sassy German several 
days later. I had followed him for some 
time, but he did not see me. He was busy 
in finding a suitable landing place and his 



6o ''EN UAIRr 

pilot was wounded. They landed and the 
observer helped get the pilot out. I landed 
very near him, about twenty yards away and 
got out. When I walked over to them they 
still did not notice me. Just as I arrived the 
captain-observer was lighting a match to set 
fire to the machine. I only had an instant 
to think, so I hit him under the jaw and out 
he went. Very soon a number of French 
soldiers arrived and the two Germans were 
taken away. This officer was highly in- 
sulted because I struck him with my fist. I 
could not impress upon him that I did it out 
of politeness, as I could have shot him just 
as easy, but he could not see it that way. I 
got into the German machine, which was 
one of the latest type of Albatross, and flew 
back to my own field. They gave me two 
days' leave and I flew to KiefF in this same 
machine. 

During the better part of September we 
found it almost impossible to go out, owing 
to rain and low clouds. I took a spy 
into the German lines with orders to leave 



FLYING IN CHAMPAGNE 61 

him, and had a very narrow escape when I 
returned for him later. The Germans 
caught him and forced him to reveal our sig- 
nals. They were waiting for me to return. 
When I was about fifty feet from the ground 
they started firing at me with machine guns, 
which they had hidden in some trees. My 
machine was badly punctured and I received 
a slight wound, but managed to escape and 
return safely. 

Sometimes we would take carrier pigeons 
over to our men. For the work we had bas- 
kets and parachutes, and would go down to 
about one hundred feet. Then we would 
drop the baskets at fixed points. 

A little later I went to Paris for a new ma- 
chine, and almost missed ever coming back. 
I left Paris at 3 o'clock in the afternoon to 
return to my escadrille. It was cloudy, but 
the clouds were only about four hundred 
feet high, so I continued on my way. About 
forty miles out of Paris, I struck a terrible 
storm of wind, hail and rain, but decided to 
go on. It was impossible to see the ground 



62 ''EN UAIRr 

and I did not have my compass. So I de- 
cided to have a look at the terrain. I started 
down and dropped to within fifty feet of the 
ground, but could see nothing that looked 
natural. Finally I saw a convoy on the road 
and went along slowly to see what it was. I 
discovered that it was German Artillery. I 
turned around, but did not know in what di- 
rection they were going. That decided me to 
keep on at a very low altitude. I did so and 
soon saw a big gun in position. I took the 
direction in which it was pointed and found 
our trenches. I was pretty warmly greeted. 

I landed again farther on and spent the 
night in a farmhouse, and I sure felt relieved 
to get back. 

It was on December i8th, in a fight near 
Maschalt, that I got eighteen bullets, but 
the result of it was that I missed the Boche. 
So, on January 1st, 1916, they sent me to 
Avor for a rest. I put in my time there as an 
instructor, but did more flying than I had 
done at the front. 




RESULTS OF NIGHT FLYING 
An English machine landed in a tree and stuck there. No one injured. 



FLYING IN CHAMPAGNE 63 

Victor Chapman was one of my pupils and 
I liked him very much. I spent two months 
at Avor. During the bad weather it was 
dull, for with no flying to do one gets bored. 



CHAPTER VII 

FIGHTING THE BOCHE AT VERDUN 

Work at the Avor training camp went on 
day after day, and for us instructors there 
was more work than we had at the front. 
However, it's very different training a bunch 
of lumbering recruits from the real game, 
and that's what any man wants. By Spring 
my rest was sufficient and I was getting good 
and tired of the alleged vacation they were 
giving me. About the middle of April I re- 
ceived my orders to start back to the front 
for active service again. So, on April 20th, 
1916, I shook the dust, only it was mud, of 
the Avor camp off my feet. 

When I rejoined the American boys they 
were at Luxeuil les Bains, and I found some 
new ones. Our first escadrille, or air squad- 
ron, was organized with the following men : 

64 



FIGHTING AT VERDUN 65 

Prince, Chapman, Thaw, Cowden, Rock- 
well, McConnell, Captain Thenault, Lieu- 
tenant de Laage de Mienx, and myself. 

Most of these boys have given their lives 
for the cause, God bless 'em, and I am proud 
that they were my pals. We were installed 
in a villa there at Luxeuil, and had to wait 
some time for our machines. We were at- 
tached to Captain Happe, one of the famous 
bombardiers. You get some idea of what 
he had done when I tell you that he had lost 
some thirty-five pilots that had gone to pro- 
tect him. He was always lucky and escaped. 
He would talk to the boys, and tell us what 
to expect. Every one of us was willing to 
take a chance, which seemed to make him 
think a good deal of us. Captain Happe 
took only volunteers; he wouldn't have a 
man who went only because he had to go. 

Our first interview with Captain Happe 
made a deep impression on some of the boys. 
We walked into his office as he was putting 
eight war crosses into little boxes. He cor- 
dially remarked : 



66 ''EN UAIRr 

'1 am sending these to the families of the 
eight men I had killed in my last bombard- 
ment." 

I guess some of the boys commenced to 
think that very soon their families would be 
receiving a small box also. But we were 
very lucky while with Captain Happe be- 
cause we only lost two men. They were 
Norman Prince and Kiffin Rockwell, both 
great fighters. 

The machines finally arrived, and then we 
started out to get the young fellows in shape. 
Our first patrol was on April 13th. The 
whole escadrille went out. Our orders were 
to patrol between the Swiss frontier and Cer- 
nay, about fifty miles east. We flew at dif- 
ferent heights, from 12,000 to 15,000 feet. 
Jimmy McConnell went the highest, and he 
got lost. Jimmy was way over in Switzer- 
land, and the following day we were notified 
to keep out by the Swiss Government. The 
next day we flew for the moving pictures. 
Around April 16th, Kiffin Rockwell brought 
down his first Boche near Thann. It was a 



FIGHTING AT VERDUN 67 

singular coincidence that his enemy fell al- 
most in the same spot where Rockwell him- 
self lost his life eight months later. On 
April 20th, we received orders to leave at 
once for Verdun. 

It was late in the afternoon when we ar- 
rived at Verdun, and we were immediately 
installed in our new quarters at Bar le Due. 
The escadrille was put into action at once, 
and I can't say that our first sortie was any- 
thing excellent. We all went grouped, 
under Captain Thenault, and I flew next to 
him, about fifty yards to his right. He had 
told us not to attack until he gave the sig- 
nal. Then we were to dive on the Germans. 
We had passed over three of their machines 
already, and we continued on into their lines. 
Just over Etain, some twelve miles inside the 
German lines, we saw six or more Boches. 
The captain started to dive, and I also went 
down rapidly and picked out a German, 
thinking my comrades were all there. But 
Captain Thenault had only come down a 
short distance and pulled up. He signaled 



68 ''EN. LAIRr 

to me that the others were not following. 
So there I was, left alone with Huns, not a 
very pleasant situation I assure you, I used 
up my ammunition quickly, as I only had 
131 shells, and that didn't last long with a 
gun shooting 650 per minute. I did all the 
stunts that I could think of and finally went 
down as though I was hit. The Germans, 
thinking I was going to land, left me for a 
minute. Then I turned and off I went. 
With the slight start that I had I managed 
to escape. We commenced the fight at 12,- 
000 feet and finished at l,8oo feet. I ar- 
rived O.K. after one of the closest shaves I 
ever had. 

On the same afternoon I brought down a 
German at Malancourt, near Verdun. In 
this encounter we fought at 15,000 feet. I 
killed the Boche pilot and the whole outfit 
fell ; nothing was left of machine or men. In 
this fighting around Verdun every trip 
meant a fight, and a good stiff one. There 
were a great many German planes, while the 
French had only a few good fighting ma- 
chines. 



FIGHTING AT VERDUN 69 

I encountered Captain Boelke daily. He 
had a Fokker fighter which was painted black 
with white crosses. The rest of the German 
machines were white with black crosses. 
Sometimes Boelke and I would do stunts for 
one another. I found that it was impossible 
to attack him, so I kept out of his range. 
A good pilot can always defend himself in a 
single combat affair. Boelke's pet prey were 
the old slow Reglage type of machine, those 
that could not protect themselves. 

I had another interesting encounter with 
a Boche on May 18th. I followed him from 
over the forest of the Argonne as far as 
Nogent-sur-Seine, but I never could arrive 
at his height somehow. He was always 
higher than my machine would go. At last 
I was forced to land on account of running 
out of gasoline. The German went on, and 
dropped bombs on Epernay. He was at 
least 17,000 feet up. Our machines at that 
time would only climb to about 15,000 feet. 
That was also my first experience of having 
grenades thrown at me. When one is lower 



70 ''EN VAIRr 

than the enemy machine they drop these 
grenades on one. The explosion is regulated 
by a time fuse ; some of them came very close 
to me, but none were successful in hitting 
me. 

On June 2nd, fourteen planes came over 
and bombarded Bar le Due. I was alone at 
the field at the time, just starting out on pa- 
trol. I happened to look up; some Boche 
were just over my head. As soon as I could 
get my machine ready, I left the ground and 
was followed shortly afterwards by Victor 
Chapman and several other boys. We at- 
tacked the Boche and brought down one. 
Victor and I followed them and I assure you 
we made it very uncomfortable for them. 
They did a great deal of havoc, however. 
Seventy people were killed and two hundred 
wounded. Bombs fell within three feet of 
our hangars. On June i6th, the same thing 
occurred again, but we stopped them in time, 
and only a few people were wounded. On 
June 23rd, there were many combats, for the 
Germans kept up their furious activity in 
the air as well as on the ground. 



FIGHTING AT VERDUN 71 

It was here that we lost one of our best and 
bravest men, Victor Chapman. The com- 
bat occurred just to the north of Fort Douau- 
mont. Victor was engaged with six or seven 
German machines and he hadn't a chance. 
He fought to the last inch and fell, dying, in- 
side the German lines. Just where, I don't 
know. But some day I hope to find his grave 
and pay my respects to one of the bravest of 
the brave. 

A little later, along in July according to 
the record in my official Aviation Corps book, 
I brought down my second Boche plane. 
This happened over Fort de Vaux. It wasn't 
really much of a fight, for I don't think that 
he saw me until it was too late. On July 
27th, I had another one down to three hun- 
dred feet, but he escaped as I ran out of am- 
munition. 

We suffered big losses in machines with 
the daily combats. At last the new ones 
came, and we were glad to discover that they 
were of a new model, each equipped with a 
iio-horse-power motor. They were rigged 



72 ''EN LAIRr 

up for effective fighting, too, with a machine 
gun shooting through the propeller. Best 
of all, they had a band of one thousand cart- 
ridges. They were faster and better climb- 
ers, and could make about 1,000 to 1,300 
feet per minute, with a speed of 115 miles 
per hour. The guns on these machines were 
timed with the motor, so that the bullets did 
not hit the propeller. This very simple de- 
vice, which never gives any trouble, was 
invented by a mechanic named Alcyon. 

These machine guns were capable of 
shooting about 600 shots per minute. The 
propeller turns over at the rate of about 
1,650 revolutions per minute. Conse- 
quently, with the two-bladed propeller that 
we used, the propeller blades were passing 
3,300 times per minute in front of the muz- 
zle of the gun. These bullets passed be- 
tween the blades without ever hitting them. 
We used for this air-fighting what is known 
as a ''cursing bullet." They are a great ad- 
vantage to us, as we see every one, just 
where it goes. They look like small electric 




GERMAN AEROPLANE BROUGHT DOWN NEAR VERDUN, 
FALLING IN FIRST-LINE TRENCHES 

See remains of machine on parapet of trench, wheels with crosses. 
Brought down by Lieutenant Dumas (since killed in combat) and Bert 
Hall. 



FIGHTING AT VERDUN 73 

lights going through the air, leaving a trail 
of blue smoke behind them. To make an 
enemy machine fall, it is absolutely neces- 
sary to kill the flyer. If you put his motor 
out of commission he planes down and lands 
in his own lines. This is not counted as a 
machine brought down. As we are supposed 
to aim our guns with the entire machine, it 
is a great advantage to use these bullets, and 
we can generally put them where we want 
them. 

On August 1st, I went to protect Norman 
Prince while he burned a captive balloon. 
This is done with a sort of sky rocket, three 
on each side of the machine. You dive head 
on the balloon, and when you are within 
fifty yards of it you press a button which ig- 
nites the rockets. They are rigged to burn 
for 600 feet, so if one of them struck the bal- 
loon it went up in smoke. Norman burned 
his and was mentioned in the Army Orders. 
On August 24th, I brought down another 
Boche near Etain, and on the 28th, I brought 
down another that burned near Fort Douau- 
mont. 



74 ''EN, LAIRr 

One day a German landed in our lines 
near Verdun. As everybody knows, the first 
thing to do is to destroy your machine to 
keep the enemy from getting it. Generally 
this is done by fire. But in this case the Ger- 
man did not fire it. As the machine was be- 
ing examined, we found a sort of box under- 
neath. When asked what it was, the Ger- 
man said that by pulling out a plug in the 
interior it would make a contact; there was 
a bomb in the box that exploded fifteen sec- 
onds later which would destroy the machine. 
We asked the German why he didn't pull the 
plug. 

''This is a new invention, and Fm no 
fool,'' he replied. 

During my service at Verdun I saw many 
of the big bombardments which were ter- 
rible. They are grand to view from the air. 
I have seen smoke up to 12,000 feet. The 
earth was one mass of holes. The whole 
country looked like a sponge. All the boys 
did well at Verdun. Thaw brought down 
two Germans. Lufbery (who had joined 



FIGHTING 'AT VERDUN 75 

while we were there with Hill, Johnson and 
Remesy) got four or five; Lieutenant de 
Laage, one ; Chapman, five ; Kiffin Rockwell, 
five; James McConnell, one; Prince and 
Cowden one each. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE BEST OF SPORT — ^AN AIR SORTIE 

"Start at 3 a.m. You are to go alone." 

Every man in this war has, sooner or later, 
his great day. This was to be mine, al- 
though I did not know it at the time the or- 
der was given the night before. It was at 
Verdun and the date, according to my diary, 
was June 22nd. 

Fighting had been going on around Ver- 
dun without interruption day and night, and 
many of the French aircraft were already 
victims of the enemy fire. At this time, as 
I now recall it, there were only six of our 
aviators in shape to take to the air for com- 
bat. 

Our hangars were located in an open field 
eight or ten miles back of the great forts and 

76 



'AN AIR SORTIE 77 

front-line trenches. We had been cruising 
constantly for days, and cruising means good 
steady business, each man's daily patrol last- 
ing about two and a half hours. It was our 
job to keep away the enemy aircraft, to 
protect the French photographers who went 
up on observation and topographical duty, 
and to note any changes in the German dis- 
positions so as to direct and correct our own 
artillery fire. All of us were in trim for any 
kind of duty. 

My orders for this particular day were not 
unlike the regular routine. It was cold and 
pitch dark when I crawled out of my blan- 
kets at 2 o'clock, which was really 1 o'clock, 
as the time is advanced in summer. My 
breakfast, like the others, consisted of rolls 
and coffee. As I do not drink coffee I con- 
centrated on those rolls. 

I made my way to our hangar and routed 
out Leon, my mechanic. In five minutes, 
with Leon's help, for it is something of a job, 
I got into my leather combination and boots, 
and clim_bed into my machine. On the side 
boots, and climbed into my machine. On the 



78 ''EN LAIRr 

side of the car was painted in large letters: 

BERT 

My machine was a single-seated Nieuport 
biplane, driven by a iio-horse-power Le 
Rhome rotary motor of nine cylinders. In 
this type of engine the cylinders revolve 
around the crank-shaft, which is stationary. 
My fighting equipment was a Vickers ma- 
chine gun, and on this morning I carried 
1,000 rounds of ammunition. 

The sides and upper portions of the 
''Bert" were camoufle, to disguise it against 
the Verdun landscape. These decorations 
correspond exactly to the red clay of the soil 
and the green of the country — large, irregu- 
larly placed spots of both colors. Under- 
neath, the ''Bert" was painted sky-blue and 
bore the French insignia — blue, white and 
red circles. 

An air sortie at dawn ! 

All was now ready. I settled myself in 
the seat and gave a once-over to everything 



AN AIR SORTIE 79 

as best I could — more by feel than by sight 
'■ — as it was still dark. The machine gun was 
loaded and ready. On the ground, Leon was 
still puttering about, giving a last touch here 
and there. 

''All set!" I called to him in English. 

He understood, and' started the motor. 
The blocks were still before the wheels of 
the machine, to make the j&nal test of the 
motor. It purred smoothly. Then I gave 
the order. Leon kicked away the blocks. 
The ''Bert" rolled along the ground for 
about fifty feet. Then I turned her into the 
wind and started up. 

I left the earth in darkness. As the "Bert" 
shot upward I entered a world of soft light. 
Up here the dawn comes first. As it began 
to illuminate the Eastern sky, I pointed 
straight into it, thrilled and quickened by its 
inspiration. Soon I was able to make out the 
wooded rises in the ground and, as I went 
on, the river Meuse became visible, seeming 
to flow out of the Boche lines. Sometimes, 
at this hour, the mist is heavy, making it 



8o ''EN LAIRr 

necessary to wait and get your bearings. 
But this morning I was not held up; there 
was nothing to stop me from my work of 
concentrating on the field over Forts Douau- 
mont and Vaux and the famous, bloody 
"304." The motor was buzzing along in fine 
shape and I was climbing at the rate of 1,300 
feet a minute. The red old sun loomed up 
before me and, although it was still dark be- 
low, things began to get clearer but smaller. 

A shell suddenly burst just underneath 
the ''Bert," even before I was able to make 
out the enemy positions. The smoke was 
black, so I knew it was a German ''Good 
morning" meant for me. Our own anti-air- 
craft shells make a white smoke. 

I kept on ascending and very soon entered 
a cloud, one of those beautiful white banks 
as seen from the ground. It wasn't white, 
however — far from it. As I dived in every- 
thing became black; I couldn't see my hand 
before my face. The motor, which makes 
racket enough at all times, now sounded like 
a continuous, deafening bombardment. The 



AN AIR SORTIE 81 

cloud vapor, damp and thick, shut in every 
particle of sound. These ''pretty white 
clouds" have no silver lining for the avia- 
tor! 

Light ahead was welcome, and I emerged 
from the cloud with my ears tingling. The 
sensation is very much as if corks were pop- 
ping inside your head in rapid succession. 
The wind was thirty miles an hour, or per- 
haps a little more. My altimeter registered 
5,000 meters, or approximately 16,500 feet 
up. I had scarcely got into the open again 
and begun to search the landscape when 
there were more shells. They had seen me. 
I discovered that I was now directly over the 
German positions. 

Naturally, my next move was to find out 
if there were any enemy aircraft in my neigh- 
borhood. I looked all around, above, and 
particularly below, for that is the danger 
quarter in combat. I kept on and, when 
about a mile inside the German lines, I saw 
three machines far below me which had just 
taken to the air. I got up a little higher. 



82 ''EN UAIRr 

They seemed to turn back, then one of them 
came on up. Soon all three were headed for 
me, the first having pulled away from his 
comrades. 

I picked it out for attack and maneuvered 
for position, eager to see what type of ma- 
chine it was. As it came on I saw a fighting 
two-seater carrying a pilot and an observer. 
I managed to keep above, and it began firing 
long before they got near me. That is poor 
tactics and I did not mind. Rip went a hole 
in one of my wings, and then I did mind. 
But my turn was coming I I opened fire but 
could not tell if my bullets were going into 
the body of the machine. We both contin- 
ued to fire and I was close enough to see the 
observer's face and square head as the ma- 
chine rushed past. I looped-the-loop and as 
they went under me I put in a few shots for 
luck. Then the two-seater looped and I 
passed under it. 

Suddenly there was a rat-tat-tat behind 
me. One look was enough. The other two 
machines had come up and opened fire on 



AN AIR SORTIE 83 

me. I pulled away to get into position again 
for the two-seater. As I did so I saw some 
red blotches on the wings of the "Bert." I 
knew that I had made a hit. It showed me, 
also, how close we had been to each other. 
The propeller revolving in front of the ob- 
server had spattered the blood on my wings. 
This proved that he was wounded in the face 
or neck. If it had been a body wound the 
blood would have flowed down to the boots 
inside the leather clothes, which are water- 
proof. 

I again made for the two-seater, which had 
veered off, and, keeping up my fire, I passed 
within twenty feet of it. This time I saw the 
square head turned sideways, the body 
slipped down under the seat. He was dead. 
The machine began to descend, for, of course, 
the pilot could not shoot, and I did not see 
it again. My 1,000 rounds of ammunition 
was running low, but I decided that I was 
still good for another. Besides, I wanted to 
bring down a machine ! 

I didn't have long to wait, for the other 



84 ''EN LAIRr 

two, both single-seaters like the ''Bert/' were 
on top of me before I knew it. One of them 
pulled off and I made directly for the other, 
letting my Vickers cut loose. 

Twenty-five shots at twenty yards. That 
tells the whole story, and it looked like good 
night for me. 

Suddenly, I saw flames bursting out of the 
cockpit of my antagonist — and I was saved. 
My aim, fortunately, had been true. Down 
went the Boche machine, a line of black 
smoke marking its path through the early 
morning light. I watched him until I saw 
him hit the ground. A puff of flame and 
smoke — that was all. I had brought down 
my machine ! I was particularly happy be- 
cause I had done it with almost the last of 
my cartridges. 

Was I now alone in this particular chunk 
of atmosphere, or was the third Boche still 
a near neighbor of mine ? I couldn't see him 
anywhere. I didn't know at this moment, 
but I think now, that the other single-seater 
which had pulled off was having motor 



AN AIR SORTIE 85 

trouble. Whatever it was didn't matter so 
much — where he was did trouble me, for in 
the air you must be ready for danger from 
six directions — from above and below in ad- 
dition to north, south, east and west. In 
order to find out what is below me I very 
seldom look over the rail of the car ; in fact, 
it is almost impossible in a machine like the 
''Bert.'' So I just turned her on her side and 
got a good look below. No Boche. I had 
about made up my mind that the last of the 
three had gone home for breakfast when I 
suddenly discovered that he was nearly 
above me. I felt that he was about to try 
one of the pet Boche stunts — ''getting under 
the tail" of my machine from above and be- 
hind. And he did. His gun, mounted in 
front, was aimed directly at me as he started 
on his behind-and-under dive. He had the 
advantage, for in order to hit him I had to 
turn and come at him head on, a reversement 
it is called. I tried this, and luckily the 
"Bert" responded so quickly that his bullets 
went wild. As I had only a few cartridges 



86 ''EN UAIRr 

left and I saw that my only chance was to 
maneuver — to do all the stunts I could think 
of, in fact— with the chance of catching him 
out of position when I was in. Also, I 
hoped that I might get on his nerves and if 
I could keep it up long enough I felt that he 
would turn and beat it for home. 

It was like a duel, just fencing around for 
position. I looped and he looped. He set 
his machine gun and fired all the time. I 
kept away from head-on contact, so his fire 
was ineffective. I climbed and he climbed. 
Then I did some slips and virages, all the 
while maneuvering for the moment when I 
could get in my last shots to advantage. 
But the moment never came. 

I suppose the whole thing was only a mat- 
ter of twenty seconds at most. Suddenly he 
dived and made off in the direction of the 
German aviation field to the east of Fort 
Douaumont. Enough is enough, when you 
are out of ammunition, and I had to let him 
go. 

I looked at my watch; fifteen minutes 



AN AIR SORTIE 87 

more and my two and a half hours would be 
over. I slowed down the motor and pre- 
pared to descend, doing it slowly, for the air 
pressure constantly became harder on my 
head and ears. Bang ! A German shell ex- 
ploded not more than forty yards away. 
Zim ! A piece of it ripped a hole, the second, 
in my wings. Damn! That's what I said, 
and didn't stop for any more. I was now 
passing over our own lines, and if ever the 
feeling of getting home grips you hard, be- 
lieve me it's after you have been flying over 
German trenches. 

The descent was gradual, for the reason 
I have said, but I was soon able to make out 
our landing field and hangar. One of my 
comrades, just starting up, passed waving 

his hand. I could tell that it was B 

by the number on the machine. I waved 
back, making a sign that I had brought down 
a Boche. One reason, and an absolutely 
necessary precaution, for the big number 
painted on the top and sides of the machines 
is to prevent slacking. We can always see 



88 ''EN LAIRr 

the numbers and each of us is required to 
report movements that he witnesses. If any 
man declines combat, or refuses to attack an 
enemy machine he is sent to the trenches 
forthwith. 

After passing B , who never shirked 

anyching in his life, God bless him! I came 
down to about 200 feet over our field. A 
short turn into the wind, nose down with the 
motor stopped, brought me skimming along 
at about a 90-mile clip to flatten out. Grad- 
ually losing speed, the wheels of the ''Bert" 
finally touched the ground; then a turn, and 
up we rolled to the hangar without a scratch 
to show for our morning's work, save the two 
holes in the wings. 

Leon welcomed me as I climbed out, cold 
and stiff, and pulled off my boots. 

'Trepare yourself for a citation," he said, 
grinning. 

"What?' 

I was busy trying to warm up a bit and 
did not quite understand his broken English. 



'AN AIR SORTIE 89 

Then he went on in French, which I did un- 
derstand. 

''Balloon No. 49 has telephoned, mon lieu- 
tenant. They witnessed your fight. They 
tell us of the exact minute and location, of 
your Boche falling in flames. Prepare your- 
self for citation, and another palm leaf for 
your Croix de Guerre^ 



CHAPTER IX 

AIR COMBATS ALONG THE SOMME FRONTS 

By this time the Lafayette Escadrille was 
getting pretty well shot to pieces. The fierce 
flying and fighting in the Vosges district had 
now cost us, among many, two of our best, 
for Kiffin Rockwell and Norman Prince were 
both killed inside of a month of each other. 
The rest of us were still together and get- 
ting in some good licks on the Boche every 
day. 

We received orders on October i4tH to 
leave at once for the Somme. We arrived 
in good shape and I was mighty glad to find 
my old superior officer there. Captain Har- 
court. He was now in charge of Escadrille 
No. 103, and it so came about that I was able 
to join him, which pleased me very much. 

Work began at once in our sector on the 
90 




GERMAN MACHINE ATTACKING ONE 
OF OUR OBSERVATION BALLOONS 

The two observers here jumped and 
may be seen descending in their para- 
chutes. No. 2 shows the results of this 



BALLOON FALLING IN FLAMES 



COMBATS ALONG THE SOMME 91 

Somme front. There was something doing 
every day. My first real stunt, a very short 
air combat, however, came on November 
lOth. I got the Boche at Raucourt, near Pe- 
ronne, and brought him down clean inside 
our lines. He was piloting a German single- 
seater and I flew a Spad. The Spad is one 
of the later model fighters. It is a fine ma- 
chine to fly and has more speed than the 
Nieuport. On the 14th I had a very close 
shave. This time I got a bullet in my cap, 
just nicking my head. 

The bombardments here on the Somme 
were terrific. The artillery work had been 
concentrated to a high degree and was ca- 
pable of firing 200,000 shells of all caliber 
per hour. This was equal to between nine 
and eleven thousand tons of steel and iron 
per hour, so you have an idea what it was 
like. It is a curious thing that one gets used 
to the noise, and I soon slept just the same 
as if I were at home. One night the Germans 
dropped bombs on our quarters about 2 
o'clock in the morning. One of the mechan- 



92 ''EN LAlRr 

ics was killed and many men wounded. The 
old shack was full of holes. A hangar con- 
taining seven machines was burned, and the 
Boche put about sixteen others out of com- 
mission; afterwards we got these planes in 
shape to use again. 

On another night we got hit again good 
and plenty. The Boche did it with one well- 
placed bomb, too. This bomb was dropped 
on an ammunition depot where 100,000 
shells were stored. 

The shells exploded for ten hours after- 
wards, which was rather peculiar, only a few 
exploding at a time. They certainly made 
quite a little noise. Amiens was bombed at 
night, killing a large number of women and 
children. 

These bombing raids at night were a fea- 
ture of the fighting all that fall at the 
Somme. Of course we retaliated, going out 
after the Boche. It proved to be some of the 
most difficult work we had. It is almost im- 
possible to see another machine at night un- 
less you happen on it at very close range. 



COMBATS ALONG THE SOMME 93 

Then it is very likely to be one of your own 
comrades. The risk to both pilot and ma- 
chine is great — to the latter because landing 
is very difficult with a fast machine at night. 

Otherwise our life at the Somme front was 
very agreeable. There were more than one 
hundred flyers of the fighting groups all on 
the same field. The formations here were 
called groups and consisted of four squad- 
rons or escadrilles. Each one was made up 
of twelve flyers, four officers including the 
commanding officer and eight non-commis- 
sioned officers. Thus one group consisted of 
forty-eight machines. Each group was com- 
manded by a Major who fixed the hours and 
issued all orders. We had a regular routine 
of work, flying by patrol between fixed 
points, two hours and thirty minutes to each 
patrol. We went out once a day and were at 
alert for two hours and thirty minutes also. 
We were generally called out. 

As our life here was typical of military 
aviation in general I will go into details a 
little. A man can figure on five hours a day 



94 ''EN UAIRr 

in good weather. The most I have ever 
flown was eight hours in one day. A stunt 
like that is very tiresome and hard on a man 
because of changing altitudes so rapidly. A 
great many men have nervous breakdown or 
heart troubles and are sent to a separate hos- 
pital where they are treated by specialists 
and well rested before they are sent back. 
The life of an aviator at the front is very 
short. No one knows the exact figures, but 
I have heard it put at about seventeen hours 
of actual flying. The life of a machine is 
from seventy to one hundred hours, barring 
accidents. Strangely enough there are very 
few accidents at the front, and practically 
no loss of life by accident. 

We were getting the newer and better 
types of machines by this time. They devel- 
oped great stability in the air, the reason be- 
ing that the center of gravity is placed on 
the nose. You get the same results as from 
an old-fashioned dart, no matter what posi- 
tion the machine is in. You let her loose and 
she goes on her nose. Once there all that you 



COMBATS ALONG THE SOMME 95 

have to do is to pull up and you are righted. 
I think this method of construction will be 
adopted by all manufacturers soon. 

The men in my escadrille were billeted in 
small houses near the hangars and each man 
had a room all to himself. There was a large 
mess shack for the officers. We had our own 
cooks, who were professionals and generally 
good. We bought our own food, that is the 
officers. One man went back to some town 
daily and bought the supplies. The non- 
commissioned men were fed by the Govern- 
ment and they had plenty of food of 
excellent quality. There were two flying 
groups on this same field, so you see there 
was quite a crowd of us. We had a shower 
bath, electric lights, plenty of wood for heat, 
and a bar. The benefits of the bar went to 
buy reading matter, and there was also a sort 
of casino where we played poker, bridge, and 
a few good old 'prayer meetings" as the dice 
games were called. Money was the least of 
our troubles, as one did not expect to live 
long enough — so why worry about finance. 



96 ''EN LAlRr 

We were all brothers and we discussed 
everything with each other, our battles and 
our love affairs. The aviators of France 
have the pick of the fair sex. Our marraines, 
or god-mothers, sent us lots of nice things 
which were duly appreciated. We had mov- 
ing-pictures once a week in a hangar, all the 
latest films. 

We were given leave every three months 
for seven days. It sure was one continuous 
party from the day we arrived in Paris until 
the last minute of the third day. It made 
flying seem like loafing. 

"Let's go back to the front and get some 
rest," we would say as we left Paris. 

It's a fact that flying was so fascinating 
and so agreeable that we couldn't stay away 
from it long. I got homesick every time I 
had leave and I wanted to get back to my 
pals and the excitement. There is a fasci- 
nation about it that ruins a man for any- 
thing else. I know that I will never be much 
good at work again. 

Before I finally left for America I had, all 



COMBATS ALONG THE SOMME 97 

told, three years of genuine sport. I don't 
know how much longer the war will last and 
my only idea is that I will have to go to work 
when it is over. I hate to think of it. Per- 
haps some kind philanthropist will put us on 
a pension. I hope so, as work would be an 
awful shock after so much pleasure and so 
many good times. 



CHAPTER X 

MY METHODS OF ATTACK 

Usually it's all over in twenty seconds, 
one way or the other. 

My own experience has taught me that 
you have got to go to it quick if you pull out 
at all. One-third of a minute after contact 
with the enemy machine means victory or 
defeat, and in nine cases out of ten life or 
death for you. The reason is this: in that 
short time you have gained the offensive or 
else the Boche has. That particular air com- 
bat is as good as decided. The man who gets 
the offensive always wins. 

I suppose every military aviator develops 
his own methods of handling his machine in 
maneuvering and in attack. No two fights 
are ever alike and you are constantly meet- 
ing with new situations. Differences in alti- 

98 



MY METHODS OF ATTACK 99 

tude might seem to account for this in some 
measure, but this has not been true in my 
work. I have fought up as high as 20,000 
feet and I can assure you that it is no differ- 
ent than a combat at 1,000 feet. 

For fighting at high altitude we were well 
dressed, as the cold is very severe. During 
the winter months at 15,000 feet altitude it 
is about 50 below zero. When we are breez- 
ing along at the rate of 140 miles per hour 
it gets pretty fresh. We wear a sealskin- 
lined one-piece combination, fur-lined boots, 
gloves and helmet. We have a preparation 
that we rub on our faces to keep the exposed 
parts from freezing. We also carry oxygen 
tubes, as the air is very rare above 16,000 
feet. Your heart will stop working without 
oxygen. We have rubber tubes and when 
we get to feeling a little giddy, we stick 
this tube in our mouths and blow ourselves 
up. One charge of oxygen will last about 
fifteen minutes. At the end of that time, if 
you remain at the high altitude, you have to 
take another whiff out of the bottle. 



100 ''EN UAIRr 

One does not notice the altitude, only the 
lightness of the air makes one gasp for breath 
once in a while. The air is very calm above 
10,000 feet, but in warm weather one gets 
shaken up pretty badly, up to 7,000 feet, by 
heat waves. In my own case I soon got used 
to flying, and I felt just as much at home in 
the air as on the ground. Sometimes we used 
to have to go at the rate of i,000 meters to 
protect the artillery machines. Then one is 
in the trajectory of the big shells and they 
shake you up a bit. In one battle we lost 
several machines which were struck by our 
own shells. 

I have heard Captain Georges Guynemer 
describe his methods. He believed that the 
first twenty seconds did the trick. When in 
a tight corner his favorite play was looping 
the loop, for he had great faith in acrobatic 
tactics. He said he always tried to fly be- 
hind the Boche and below him if possible. I 
always felt better if I could get the altitude 
on an enemy plane. Guynemer was one of 
the best shots in the French aviation and he 



MY METHODS OF ATTACK loi 

would bring his machine up short, after his 
opening attack, and open his deadly fire. In 
my opinion, to gain the altitude is to have 
the advantage. That is the reason, I believe, 
that so much of the work is being done so 
high at the present time. One can dive on 
an adversary and, by skillful maneuvering, 
protect oneself to a certain extent from his 
machine-gun fire. There are certain posi- 
tions from which he cannot shoot at once. If 
it is a case of a Boche single-seater one need 
not worry. You must watch his maneuver- 
ing and not let him get behind you. 

Sometimes we used a tracing bullet. You 
can see exactly where every one goes and by 
this means repair your fire, which is a great 
advantage. 

Unlike a single-seater, I have found that 
the big German double-seater is a mighty 
hard proposition. They are well armed and 
the gunner keeps a sharp look-out. One of 
your most tiring duties is this business of 
look-out. You must keep constantly turn- 
ing around to avoid being stepped upon. 



102 ''EN UAIRr 

Very seldom do you encounter a German 
who will fight you at equal odds. They are 
not clean fighters and cannot be classed as 
fighters man to man. They fight only in or- 
ganizations. They are made to fight by dis- 
cipline and not by overflowing courage. At 
the beginning there was some chivalry 
among them, but not any more. Now we at- 
tack as soon as we see each other, and, of 
course, we are there for that purpose. The 
Germans cannot be compared to the French 
as fighters. Their machines are good but 
the men are deficient. 

You soon find out that clouds are your 
friends, especially if the cloud is thick and 
full of holes. I did a good deal of this kind 
of fighting. You hang around over a hole 
and wait for the Boche to pass under, through 
the open space. Then j^ou can get him by 
surprise from your ambush. It was in a bat- 
tle of this kind that I fought at the heaviest 
odds I ever encountered, fourteen to one. 
It took place over Soully, the headquarters 
at Verdun, and Marshal Joffre saw the 




W W 

< o 

g 8 



MY METHODS OF ATTACK 103 

fight. I think it was one of the Marshal's 
first opportunities to witness an air fight at 
close range, and he seemed to be much im- 
pressed by it. It was then that I was deco- 
rated with the Medaille Militaire^ the high- 
est French military decoration. This me- 
daille cannot be worn by an ojBBcer, only by a 
non-commissioned man or general command- 
ing an army. I was a sergeant at the time I 
was decorated with the medaille. 

Many times, of course, there are attacks 
without results. Then we would each start 
back to his own lines, waving a hand for au 
revoir. If the pilot, or the machine, is hit 
badly it usually falls like a leaf, fluttering 
and zig-zagging to earth. This is not al- 
ways the case, for if the aviator stops his 
motor he falls slowly. If, however, the 
motor is running it generally falls nose first 
and at terrific speed. As a rule the wings 
buckle up and they go down like a stone. 
You can watch them until they strike the 
ground; a puff of smoke and a spot of debris, 
that is all. If the machine falls in our lines 



104 "^^ UAIRr 

we generally land near it in order to get 
a souvenir. 

Collisions in the air are more frequent 
than might be supposed. It was at Verdun 
that I saw one of my friends, a Frenchman, 
misjudge in making an attack. He ran into 
the Boche and they both went down together 
for some distance. Then they came apart 
and fell to the earth. 

That is not all. I have also set a Ger- 
man machine on fire, and unless you have 
seen such a sight you have no idea how rap- 
idly an aeroplane will burn. It is horrible 
if you put yourself in the place of the pilot 
of that doomed machine, but you feel much 
better than if it were yourself. A long black 
train of smoke is all there is to picture the 
tragedy to you. The inflammable bullet is 
another weapon which is used with great ef- 
fectiveness. It doesn't need to wound you 
to get in its deadly work. Once I saw a 
French captain v/hose machine had been set 
on fire by one of these inflammable bullets. 
The poor devil knew that he would burn 



MZ METHODS OF ATTACK 105 

before reaching the earth, so he dived into 
the German machine which was below him. 
They both went down together, burning. I 
have also seen a man fall out of a machine 
from an altitude of twelve thousand feet. 
He fell so rapidly that all one could see was 
a black line. There was nothing left of him, 
and his body was driven into the earth three 
feet. 

Some people have asked me about this 
business of killing the other fellow. I can't 
speak for other aviators, but I never really 
wanted to kill another man — if he was a 
man. But j^ou cannot call the German a 
man ; he is only a savage. It is simply a case 
of getting him before he gets you. One is 
more of a professional than anything else, 
and it is different from the infantry. As I 
have said, there was at first quite a bit of 
chivalry in the aviation but that has ceased. 
We used to drop a line, telling the Germans 
of their comrades who had been brought 
down inside the French lines. If they were 
wounded, killed or prisoners, we would send 



io6 ''EN UAIRr 

word of it back to their comrades. When I 
bring down a Boche I am always relieved to 
see him go, as the more we kill the quicker 
it will be over. 

Altogether I have brought down compara- 
tively few machines as a result of the more 
than one hundred air combats in which I 
have been engaged. It is not as easy as it 
seems. One of the most distinct recollec- 
tions you have of a fight is the noise of a 
machine gun in the air. Sometimes in a sur- 
prise attack, when you have a Boche slip up 
on you, the first thing you hear is the tat-tat 
of his machine gun. You can even hear the 
bullets go by above the din of your motor. 
That soon makes you get busy doing acro- 
batics to get away. We generally loop, like 
Captain Guynemer, if the enemy is near 
enough behind us. Then he goes under and 
we are behind him, which puts us in a posi- 
tion to give him his own medicine. 

Nerve, after all, is the principal requisite 
of a successful military aviator. I have 
found that the best tactics is to go straight at 



MY^ METHODS OF ATTACK 107 

the Boche. While you are doing this he gets 
a good chance at you, but if you have the 
nerve you get in more shots at him from a 
more favorable position than when you 
maneuver. You can only get in a few shots 
otherwise, as you are out of position when 
maneuvering. I have tried all methods and 
find this the best. I have seen all the best 
flyers attack, Captain Guynemer, Navarre, 
Nungasser and the rest, for we were always 
together. Their methods of attack were dif- 
ferent, but the straight dive always gave the 
best results. 



CHAPTER XI 

SUBMARINED EN ROUTE TO RUSSIA 

Early in December, 1916, the French 
Government received an urgent request 
from the military authorities in Russia and 
Roumania for some French aviators. They 
were needed on the east front, to show the 
Russians how we were playing the game, 
and also to put heart into their own flyers. 
It was now that a new phase of my work com- 
menced. Orders came to me to go on this 
service, and I started at once for Petrograd, 
leaving Paris on December 19th. 

My journey was full of adventure, includ- 
ing one new experience, an encounter with 
a submarine. From Paris I went directly to 
London, when I changed my French uniform 
for civilian's clothes. It is important to re- 
member this. The ship I was to take sailed 

108 



SUBMARINED 109 

from Newcastle and our first port was Ber- 
gen on the Norwegian coast. On the way 
we were stopped by a German submarine. 
The sea was too rough, however, to permit 
the men from the submarine to board our 
shipo They held us a long time, asking us 
what our cargo was and our nationalities. If 
the weather had permitted them to come 
aboard I w^ould probably have been taken a 
prisoner. I thank Providence for that rough 
sea. From Bergen we proceeded to Chris- 
tiania, and thence to Stockholm. Before 
reaching Stockholm I met up with a couple 
of Germans who were buying war supplies. 
Both were officers. They asked my business, 
so I said I was selling supplies to the Rus- 
sian Government. So, being an American, 
they talked very freely with me. They were 
confident of victory and told me of their su- 
periority in artillery and aviation. I said 
'yes," when I really wanted to strangle 
them. Thinking of some five or six Boches 
that I had brought down I decided that their 
superiority was not so great. They wanted 



no ''EN LAIRr 

to buy somethings of me which I didn't have, 
of course. I asked how I could ship them. 
They replied that I could send the supplies 
to them at Stockholm where they had a 
house. 

"We do quite a bit of buying in the 
United States," they told me. ''Sweden is 
our friend." 

I discovered this myself. I promised to 
call on them on my return from Russia. I 
would like to have done so — with a bomb. 

From Stockholm I continued my journey 
to Haparanda, and across by sleigh to Tor- 
nes. It was forty below zero and the wind 
was blowing fifty miles an hour during most 
of the trip. At the Russian frontier I was 
examined by interpreters, and gone over 
most thoroughly, I can assure you. It took 
over two hours and I had a French diplo- 
matic passport. They took no chances, for 
I was in civilian's clothes. More than once 
I thought I would never get through, and 
that is not all, for if an officer is found in 
civilian's clothes he can be shot. 



SUBMARINED in 

The customs officials were very alert be- 
cause many Germans came into Russia by 
this way. 

Early the following morning I ar- 
rived at the Finland railroad station in 
Petrograd. The cold was terrible and I was 
glad to pay an extortionate price, ten ru- 
bles, to the taxi driver who took me to the 
Hotel de France. The ordinary charge is 
one ruble. At that time the ruble was 
worth 33 1/3 cents but before I left Russia 
its value had depreciated to about 17 cents. 
At the Hotel de France they gave me a very 
small room at ten rubles a day. There was 
no bath, of course, for baths are not very 
popular in Russia. In the morning I went 
down for breakfast, and when I saw the 
prices my appetite failed me. Eggs were 
one ruble each, bacon two rubles, coffee 
one ruble. The waiter only spoke Russian 
and, as I was not very apt at this tongue yet, 
we couldn't talk much. 

*'Do you speak German?" he asked. 

"Yes," I replied. 



112 ''EN, UAIRr 

Then he proceeded to talk in the most 
fluent German that I have ever heard. I 
am sure that he had been a kellner at the 
Winter Garden in Berlin and I know that 
his German was much better than his Rus- 
sian. Like so many others he was a distin- 
guished member of the Kaiser's secret diplo- 
matic corps. They are all placed where they 
can do the most good for Germany. Only 
oiBcers were placed in the Petrograd hotels 
where they could hear very important mat- 
ters, for the Russians are not at all discreet. 

The day I arrived in Petrograd, Decem- 
ber 29th, was the day after the famous Ras- 
putin had been murdered. There was crepe 
and other mourning emblems on many pub- 
lic buildings, especially the palaces. Ras- 
putin and all his followers were pro-Ger- 
mans and there is no doubt in my mind but 
that he was in daily communication with 
Germany. The influence of Rasputin in the 
administration of affairs was extraordinary. 
He controlled the railroads of Russia, and 
often the material assigned to the front for 




MASSON AND BERT HALL 




OUR HOME ON THE RUSSIAN FRONT 
Aeroplane box used for house. 



SUBMARINED 113 

the armies never arrived. Whole train- 
loads of stuff were found in Siberia when it 
had been already to Petrograd and was con- 
signed to the southwest and northern fronts. 
This was all the work of Rasputin. 

Of all the wild tales about how Rasputin 
met his death, the one told to me by an of- 
ficer of the Russian general staff is true. 
The monk was enticed to a village about 
thirty miles from Petrograd by three of his 
followers. He went disguised, as he knew 
his enemies were after him. He spent the 
day with these women. In the evening they 
suddenly disappeared and Rasputin found 
himself confronted by eleven men, all very 
noted personages in Russia, and among them 
one man who is very important in Russia to- 
day. A revolver was placed on the table 
and Rasputin was told to kill himself. He 
did not do so, but picked up the gun and 
shot at one of his eneniies. He missed the 
man and killed a dog that was in the room. 
Before Rasputin could fire again he was shot 
by three of the party. Afterwards they 



114 ''EN UAIRr 

found three balls of different caliber in his 
body. 

I spent only three days in Petrograd but 
that was long enough for them to politely 
separate me from nearly every cent I had. 
Prices were worse than the Klondyke in 
1898. A glass of brandy cost $8.00 in our 
money. I am not a drinker so I didn't invest 
much in liquor. A pair of $5 shoes were $30 
a pair. I went on my way thinking things 
would be better elsewhere, but I found just 
the contrary. The farther I went the higher 
the prices went. Everybody seemed rich but 
me. A clerk in an office that drew a salary 
of 100 rubles per month was living like a 
king. Once I asked a Russian officer how 
they did it. He smiled. 

''Graft, my boy. You don't know Rus- 
sia." 

And I didn't. We Americans are three 
hundred years behind Russia. I really be- 
lieve I was the only poor man there at the 
time. 



CHAPTER XII 

TRYING TO HELP RUSSIA AND ROUMANIA 

From one end of the Eastern front to the 
other was chaos, everything and everybody. 
The French officers who had been sent over 
were doing what they could to bring about 
order, and in spots things were cleaned up, 
put in shape and organized to some extent. 
It made me want to laugh and weep at the 
same time. My work took me from a point 
about one hundred miles south of Riga at the 
north to the very end of the Roumanian line 
on the Black Sea at the south. I had a chance 
to see what was going on everywhere, and I 
mixed with the officers and men of both ar- 
mies, the Russian and Roumanian. I cer- 
tainly was impressed with their ideas of war 
after my two years on the Western front. 
No system, no anything. They have eighty- 

115 



ii6 ''EN LAIRr 

eight national holidays in Russia and no sol- 
dier will fight on a holiday. The kind of 
fighting they do on the other days is a joke. 

In the Russian aviation things couldn't 
have been worse. I found that the men 
would fly only when they felt like it. They 
almost never passed over behind the Ger- 
man lines. The average Russian aviator 
aims to fly six hours per month. His pay is 
two hundred rubles and after his six hours 
he takes a good long rest. When I started 
in to really do some flying they thought I 
was a patriot and a fool. In fact, they didn't 
make any bones about telling me so. They 
let the German machines do what they 
pleased; they flew all around our lines and 
were never molested by the Russians. 

Socially the Russian aviator is certainly a 
good fellow. They can all play a good game 
of poker and can put away a lot of drinks. I 
think they have the Germans beat in these 
branches. But as fighters they are nil. No 
patriotism, no enthusiasm and not too much 
courage. About all they did in the aviation 



TRYING TO HELP RUSSIA 117 

corps was to drink champagne, play poker 
and ''66," a German game. The men always 
say ''to-morrow." They are never in a hurry 
and they don't worry. The Russian has no 
idea of what war means in the air. They are 
well equipped, having all the latest types of 
fighting machines. But the Russians are not 
air fighters. They were very frank, almost 
childlike, in expressing their feelings to me. 

"Oh, we would be just as well off under 
German Kultur as we are now." 

I have often heard things like that. Rus- 
sia means nothing to the average Russian, al- 
though I met a few, a very few, patriots 
among them. 

From the north I went on down to the 
Caucasus front, and there I met the Grand 
Duke Nicholas. He is a remarkably able 
soldier and a patriot. He is fighting for 
Russia and is one of the few men who had 
any real influence with the soldiers. He is 
worshiped by his men. 

One instance, a thing which happened to 
me, will show better than a description what 



ii8 ''EN LAIRr 

the fighting was like here. It happened 
when I brought down my first Boche on the 
Eastern front. I saw him come over in our 
lines at about 1,500 feet altitude and I went 
after him. I suppose that he thought I was 
a Russian as he did not pay any attention to 
me. I proceeded to shoot him down. When 
I returned I was very much surprised to find 
that my comrades did not approve of what 
I had done. They said : 

''We have been here a long time and the 
Germans have never bothered us. Now they 
will get mad and come and drop bombs on 
us and may kill some of us." 

I thought that this was a little too steep, 
so I moved on to another squadron, but I 
found that they were all about the same. 
Soon after this I was proposed for the Cross 
of St. George, a decoration for officers only, 
which is very rare in Russia. I received it 
by the Czar's order only four days before he 
abdicated. It was the last one given out by 
him. I also received the St. Vladimir, which 
is the Russian Legion d'Honneur, 



TRYING TO HELP RUSSIA 119 

From the army of the Grand Duke Nich- 
olas I went on south into Roumania, where 
I joined what was then the combined Russo- 
Roumanian army. I never would have be- 
lieved such things as I saw there, and I doubt 
if the terrible story can ever be told. Out 
of the 650,000 men in the Roumanian army 
only about 90,000 were on the front. Every- 
where the country and the people were in a 
most horrible condition. The greater part 
of this vast army had died of disease, al- 
though thousands of sick had been sent back 
into Russia to recuperate. Typhus did most 
of this slaughter. There was plenty of chol- 
era, but that was fatal in only about ten per 
cent, of the cases. But here in Roumania 
under war conditions typhus was sure death 
both in the army and to the wretched civil 
population. The only chance you have with 
typhus is to be strong and well nourished. 
But there was not a man, woman or child in 
Roumania at this time who was in good con- 
dition, or anywhere near it. 

The every-day scenes in Jassy were be- 



120 ''EN UAIRr 

yond belief. Jassy is normally a city of 
about 40,000 inhabitants. In it 450,000 
poor wretches had sought refuge. There 
was no food for them and little or no shelter. 
They died in the streets by hundreds. Any- 
thing like burial or a quick disposition of 
the bodies was out of the question. I 

I couldn't get a meal and it seemed almost 
sacrilegious in the midst of all this horror to 
hunt for cigarettes. There were none, any- 
how. But that was nothing. There was no 
soap, no sugar, coffee, tea nor clothing. To 
eat you only got corn meal cooked in a sort 
of mush and served cold. We had some 
beans but no other vegetables, meat some- 
times twice a week. Not a bath house was 
open in the city. The cold was intense. 
There was no wood or coal for heat and the 
temperature was about twenty-five degrees 
below zero. Many of the doctors and nurses 
died of typhus. 

The railroad station was converted into 
a hospital and in it were about three hun- 
dred beds. In each bed were three wounded 



TRYING TO HELP RUSSIA 121 

men, and on the floor lay fully a thousand 
others. 

I knew the French doctor here and he told 
me that they had no medicines and no food 
for the men. One day I went with him as he 
made his rounds in the station-hospital with 
his orderlies. They went along among the 
men, tapping them with a cane. If the man 
grunted they said : 

"All right; he's alive." 

If there was no response the orderlies 
would take out the body. Box-cars were 
used, the bodies being loaded into them and 
hauled out of the city. I saw three hun- 
dred at one time piled up awaiting burial. 
A great many died of hunger and from cold 
because there was no wood for heat. There 
was about three feet of snow on the ground. 
All winter communications with the outside 
world were nearly cut off. Only one rail- 
road line ran to Russia and there was no or- 
ganization on even this. It was not the same 
gauge as the Russian railroads and all stuff 
had to be transferred to Roumanian cars. 



122 ''EN UAIRT 

I often talked with French doctors who 
had been through the Serbian campaign and 
they told me that conditions in Roumania 
surpassed Serbia for misery and. suffering. 
There was absolutely no way of getting re- 
lief and news never left the country. 

The Roumanian private is a good soldier, 
but the officers — zero. It happened that I 
arrived just in time to see General Souchec 
degraded and sent to prison for four years, 
Colonel Sturtza shot, and a good many oth- 
ers punished. Colonel Sturtza was going 
over to the Germans with his entire regi- 
ment when he was caught by a sentinel and 
made to confess. The French Mission 
straightened out a great many things like 
this. The Mission was headed by General 
Berthello who did some wonderful things 
for Roumania. Otherwise the Germans 
would have taken the rest of the country. 
Fourteen Roumanian officers of different 
ranks were executed. In the end a plan was 
adopted by which one French officer was at- 
tached to each Roumanian regiment. Their 



TRYING TO HELP RUSSIA 123 

own officer had no value of any kind, only to 
paint his lips and powder his face. I will 
venture to say some of them go so far as to 
carry matches almost like men. They never 
go near the trenches. The Germans said 
that when they wanted a Roumanian officer 
prisoner they put up a barber's sign and he 
walked right into their trenches. There was 
no fighting on this front. You could go out 
and walk around the trenches and no one 
would molest you. 

I was a witness here of what is probably 
the most terrible railroad accident ever 
known. It happened on the Barlade & Ga- 
lata Railroad. A long train of about sixty 
coaches ran into another train, a freight, 
under suspicious circumstances. More than 
1,000 persons were killed and 700 injured 
in the accident and the fire which followed. 
The engineer was an Austrian. He escaped 
and has never been caught so far as I know. 

There was but one relieving thing about 
all this horror in Roumania. I met up with 
many of my old French friends here who had 



124 ''EN UAIRr 

come over from Salonika or Russia before 
I arrived. I was presented to King Ferdi- 
nand, Queen Mary and Crown Prince Carol. 
They had eighty-six servants in the royal 
palace, and about fifty per cent, of these were 
Germans. They were well fed when the 
army was starving. I have seen their sol- 
diers so weak that they could not walk for 
want of food. I gave them money, that was 
all I could do. The people would say : 

"Look at our soldiers; no clothing, no 
food, no shoes, yet they never complain !" 

There was a good reason; no one to listen 
to their complaints, so they did the best they 
could. 

I also brought down a Boche here near 
Galatz on the river Danube, for which I re- 
ceived two decorations, that of St. Stanislaus 
and the Vertu Militaire. 



CHAPTER XIII 

BOMBING THE KAISER AT SOFIA 

''Who would like to go to Sofia on a 
Bombing raid?" 

The question came to us one morning, 
about the time that I had decided to get back 
to Petrograd. But I thought, why not get a 
glimpse of Bulgaria, just to add to my col- 
lection of Balkan impressions — about as un- 
like each other, and of as many colors, as a 
boy's sack of marbles. So I decided on the 
little jaunt to Sofia right then. Also, I was 
anxious to learn flying conditions in the Bal- 
kans, to see if they were anything like those 
to the north, or what I had experienced on 
the Western front. 

A big percentage of the Balkan country is 
very rough and mountainous. Furthermore, 
it is not very agreeable to fly over because 

125 



126 ''EN, LAIRr 

there are no landing fields. In case of motor 
trouble many people are under the impres- 
sion that in rough countries there are air 
pockets and bad currents of air. There are 
to a certain extent, but with the modern aero- 
plane there is absolutely no danger. 

The worst air disturbances in the Balkans, 
I found, are caused by heat waves on the 
very warm days. Up to 5,000 feet you are 
shaken up pretty badly, but in this rough 
country to find a place to land is difficult. 
There is not very much risk if you know how 
to do it. You may land on a tree and still 
do not hurt yourself. Maybe a few bones 
are broken, but not anything serious. But, 
if you don't know how, it may prove more 
serious, although our motors seldom fail us. 
There is no good in worrying. I have landed 
once off the aerodrome from motor troubles 
in three years. 

In Roumania we had our field at Galatz, 
a town of about 40,000 population, on the 
Danube. The nearest point to the German 
lines was then about five miles. It was con- 



BOMBING THE KAISER 127 

tinually being bombarded. There is not 
much left of it now. Just opposite is Braila, 
a great grain-handling point. At Constanza 
and Braila, the Germans captured about 
twenty million bushels of wheat. We used 
to drop bombs on Braila daily, doing consid- 
erable damage, and I had already gone on 
some long reconnoitering trips. From here 
we used to follow the Bucharest line of the 
railroad to see what activity was going on. 

It was beautiful country from the air. 
The Danube could be seen from the air for 
miles, but this Blue Danube stuff is all bunk. 
The river is as muddy as the Mississippi. 
There was a continuous patrol of armed tugs 
on the Danube, and quite a bit of shelling 
was done by these boats. 

One morning (the date was Feb. 3d), 
news came from Sofia that stirred up things 
in our camp and on the whole front near us. 
We learned that at Sofia there was being 
held a council of war attended by the Kaiser, 
Emperor of Austria, King of Bulgaria and 
the Sultan. We wanted to pay our respects 
to them with a few bombs, and we did ! 



128 "EN UAIRr 

Our route, of course, lay through Rou- 
mania, over Bukharest and so to Sofia. The 
morning was very cloudy. There were two 
of us for the trip. We left our field at Ga- 
latz. At 7 o'clock we ran into the clouds. 
At about 6,000 feet they were very heavy 
and thick, from 300 to 1,000 feet. We 
climbed through them and came out into the 
bright morning sunlight. It was a beauti- 
ful sight. This sea of clouds and the morn- 
ing sunlight on them was an artist's dream 
for color and softness. We headed towards 
Bukharest, traveling by compass only. We 
got the direction of the wind, to see if it was 
a cross wind and figure our drift— a strong 
cross wind will carry you quite a ways in a 
100-mile trip. We had a wind about 1-4 
N.W. so we didn't have much lift to worry 
about. It was impossible to see the earth. 
Our compass was all we could see. 

We continued until we figured we were 
near Bukharest. Then we came down 
through the clouds to look around and get 
our bearings. As soon as we came out in the 



BOMBING THE KAISER 129 

clear, below the clouds, we saw Bukharest 
about five miles ahead, and to the left of us. 
We had a look at Bukharest, then headed 
toward Nilkopo and Sofia. Always over the 
clouds at about 6,000 feet altitude. If it 
had not been for the clouds we would have 
been up 15,000 feet, but it was not neces- 
sary, as we could not be seen from below 
and there was no danger from guns. 

We passed over one or two clear spots only 
a few hundred feet across. After we had 
gone along for about fifty minutes we came 
through the clouds again for the second town 
on our route. When we came out from 
under the clouds it was raining torrents and 
very difficult for us to see the earth at all. 
The rain was very disagreeable. It cut our 
faces at the rate of speed we traveled, so we 
did not see our town. We climbed back 
above the clouds again and continued to- 
ward Sofia under the same conditions, al- 
ways cloudy. 

At last we were due at Sofia, according to 
our watches, and the average speed we were 



130 ''EN LAIRr 

making, about 120 miles per hour. We 
slowed our meters and came through the 
clouds to see if we could get our bearings 
from the earth and our maps. When we 
came out of the clouds we were just over the 
suburbs of Sofia. I think that was one of 
the best guesses I ever made. Not altogether 
a guess, of course. Our instruments are very- 
accurate, but one's speed never is the same. 
You must judge for yourself, as there is no 
accurate speed meter for an aeroplane. We 
headed for the center of the city, to locate 
the palace of King Ferdinand and the Par- 
liament building. We had a plan of the 
city, so it did not take us long to find them. 

Sofia is very interesting from the air; the 
way it is laid out is very peculiar. It is in the 
shape of a triangle, all streets terminating 
in an immense circle in the center, where all 
the Government buildings are located. I 
chose the palace of the King; my comrade 
the House of Parliament. We got directly 
over them and came down in spirals. 

I dropped my first bomb from about 3,000 



BOMBING THE KAISER 131 

feet. It struck the corner of the palace. I 
saw it explode, the smoke and dust flying up. 
I could see people running in all directions. 
My second one was a miss. It exploded in 
the court-yard about fifty feet from the pal- 
ace. The third and last was a good hit on 
the top of the building. Whether or not it 
went through, I will not know until after the 
war. I hope it did ! My comrade made good 
hits also. We saw the people picking up 
wounded and dead. We turned around, in 
about five minutes, and gave them an exhi- 
bition. If I had only had a machine gun I 
would have rid the world of some more scum. 
But we did not carry our guns, so as to be 
able to carry three bombs, otherwise we 
would only have been able to carry two. 

They fired at us from below with rifles and 
machine guns, but we should worry about 
that! 

After we got our results well summed up, 
we climbed and started back toward Nil- 
kopo, Bukharest, and home. 

As we got near the Roumanian frontier 



132 ''EN^ LAIRr 

the weather began to clear and we could see 
the earth through the holes in the clouds. 
Before passing Bukharest it was clear. We 
climbed to about 4,000 feet and continued 
on our way. It was not long before we could 
see the Danube in the distance and as it 
loomed near we felt much relief, as to be cap- 
tured in the Balkans means death. Our mo- 
tors purred along and carried us safely back 
to our starting point. We only saw one en- 
emy airplane that had been sent out to meet 
us. He was too low and did not cause us 
any trouble. We were unarmed so could not 
put up a fight. In case we were attacked our 
only defence would have been our skill and 
wits. They often answer the purpose. 

We came down and landed at Galatz, on 
our field. 

My comrade and I were congratulated by 
our superior officers and also by King Fer- 
dinand of Roumania. We were very tired 
and hungry — the strain on a man is some- 
thing beyond imagination. After a great 
lunch and a siesta we felt much better. 



BOMBING THE KAISER 133 

The route we had taken was as follows: 
Galatz following the railroad line to Braila, 
Bukharest, Nilkopo, and on to Sofia. The 
distance was 540 miles for the round trip. 
We made it in four hours and twenty min- 
utes. After returning to Galatz we learned 
a few of the details but not much. In the 
bombing of the Parliament building one 
deputy had been killed and several notables 
wounded. The King's palace was badly 
damaged and some excitement was caused. 
We do not want to kill women and children 
as the Germans are doing in France and 
England. We want to clear them up fair 
and square and we will ! 

Now that the raid was over we had two 
days' leave. So we went to Jassy to see 
some pretty girls. We had a nice holiday 
and came back thoroughly contented and 
happy, and ready for another exploit. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE REVOLUTION AS I SAW IT 

When I got back into Russia again and 
was traveling toward Petrograd, during the 
first days of March, I heard some talk of a 
revolution. The early rumors were mostly 
to the effect that the Church would not give 
the consent, but I was told that on the lOth 
the dignitaries sent out word to the people 
that God no longer loved the Czar. There 
were all kinds of proclamations, and on the 
12th Nicholas signed his abdication of the 
throne. Then came the real revolution and 
with it more proclamations. There were 
proclamations plastered around everywhere 
until you couldn't see the walls, they were so 
thick. 

One of them was directed to the army and 
told the men that they were free, that they 

134 



THE RE VOLUTION AS I SAIV IT 135 

were not required to salute their officers be- 
cause they were only men like themselves. 
The discipline in the Russian army had been 
very severe, and you can imagine what fol- 
lowed. The majority of the officers be- 
longed to the aristocracy and of course they 
resented this. Most of them were murdered 
and the rest disarmed; a great many es- 
caped. The soldiers then proceeded to elect 
their own officers. Any one who was a popu- 
lar man in his company was elected as an of- 
ficer. 

Nearly all the Russian soldiers with 
whom I talked wanted the Grand Duke 
Nicholas for Czar. When they were told 
that there were no more grand dukes the sol- 
diers said : 

''Why, we didn't want him taken away. 
He was our friend." 

As nearly as I could make out, about fifty 
per cent, of the soldiers went back to their 
homes. They believed that the revolution 
made them free to do anything they liked. 
There was virtually a verbal armistice by the 



136 ''EN UAIRr 

troops that remained. The Germans gave 
the Russians plenty to drink. Often they 
would dance together and have a great time, 
saying that there was going to be no more 
war. 

''We are all rich now; we don't have to 
work any more," was the Russian belief. 

The poor officers fared pretty badly, I can 
tell you. I saw them killed in cold blood by 
their troops. One, a general in Bessarahin, 
was hanged. He had gone into a railroad 
station to get something to eat. Some sol- 
diers were making remarks which he re- 
sented. He then sent for an armed guard 
to arrest the men, but when the guard came 
they arrested the general instead. They took 
him out of the station and a crowd gathered 
round. Somebody said : 

''What will we do with him?" 

Then someone suggested, "Hang him." 
And they did. 

This was absolutely uncalled-for, as he 
was a good man, was one of the few artillery 
experts in Russia. 



THE REVOLUTION AS I SAWi IT. 137 

In Petrograd things were just as bad. A 
friend of mine, a lady living at the Hotel du 
Nord, had an experience which is typical of 
the condition of the city at that time. The 
Hotel du Nord is just in front of the Nich- 
olas station. She was awakened one morn- 
ing by firing in the street and the station. 
She looked out to see what was the trouble, 
just in time to get the end of her nose shot 
off by a passing bullet. That is a good ex- 
ample of Russian marksmanship. When 
they are shooting at you, you are safe. But 
if they are shooting at something else, you 
had better hide. 

You can guess what went on in a city of 
3,000,000 population during a time like that, 
with no law and order. All the convicts 
were liberated, but some of them went back 
to the prison for protection. The people 
were taking everything they could get their 
hands on ; most all the stores were closed. It 
was very difficult to get anything to eat and 
rubles were like pennies. Everyone was ar- 
rested about twice daily. But, with a few 
rubles, you were safe. 



138 "Ei\^ UAIRr 

It was even more tragic and amusing to 
see the way in which the Navy carried on its 
revolution. They were worse than the 
Army. The Baltic fleet was frozen in, so 
the sailors chopped holes in the ice and 
pushed their officers underneath. They said 
that by doing this they did not murder their 
officers, they only pushed them under. If 
they couldn't get out, it was not their fault, 
so they had clear consciences. The men also 
elected their officers. One day two greasy 
sailors walked into the bureau of the Navy 
at Petrograd and said : 

"We are the commanders of the Baltic 
fleet." 

The secretary thought that this was a bad 
proposition, but he said : 

''Well, you men are very important, so 
we'll have to keep you here to be delegates 
in the Workingmen's and Soldiers' Senate." 

I heard afterwards that some old reserve 
officers had to take command, men who had 
not been on a ship in twenty years. 

Among the many changes in the Russian 



THE REVOLUTION AS I SAW IT 139 

army brought about by the revolution is the 
giving of commissions to Jews. Before it 
there were no Jewish officers allowed in the 
army. Now they may have fifty per cent. 
This does not please the Russians. 

I talked with many soldiers and every one 
of them had just one idea — he wanted to 
live in the Royal Palace. They told me that 
it was their right. 

"The palaces belong to us now; why can't 
we live in them?" 

You could buy almost any sort of army 
equipment you wanted on the streets of 
Petrograd. The soldiers were joyously sell- 
ing everything that had been issued to them. 
If you wanted a motorcycle you could get it 
from a former army motorcyclist for 200 ru- 
bles. Why, you could even buy a cannon 
if you wanted it. The soldiers said : 

'It all belongs to us now, after the revo- 
lution. We don't want to fight any more. 
Now we are going to enjoy our wealth so 
we don't want to fight any more and risk be- 
ing killed." 



140 ''EN UAIRr 

These were almost unbelievable days in 
Petrograd. It was like boom times in a 
Western mining town in the United States, 
There was absolutely no standard of prices, 
everybody seemed bent on charging just a 
little more than anybody else. I paid $10 
for a dinner in Petrograd just before I left, 
that would cost sixty cents in New York. 
However, no one seemed to mind it; every 
one was rich. I never saw the equal, it 
seemed more like a gold strike than a war. 

When I came to try to get away from 
Petrograd my real troubles began. The rail- 
roads were disorganized completely, abso- 
lutely no system. It took seven days to go 
seven hundred miles on a passenger train, 
and three months to get a goods train from 
Vladivostok to Petrograd. At first I de- 
cided to return by the same route I had come, 
going to Sweden, Christiania, Bergen and on 
to London. So, on the first day of May, I 
left Petrograd. I was able to get as far as 
Christiania, where I waited in vain for a 
boat. No one gave me any hope of getting 



THE REVOLUTION AS I SAW IT 141 

to London, so I retraced my steps and re- 
turned to Petrograd. I was forced to make 
my homeward journey in the other direction, 
through Siberia, Manchuria, and Japan to 
San Francisco. 

Never again for me in Russia ! 



CHAPTER Xy 



MY PALS 



Many of the things which I am going to 
tell about my pals in the Foreign Legion and 
the Lafayette Escadrille happened after we 
broke up and got scattered, but no matter. 
This book would not be complete without 
some account of them. We were together 
more or less until the Boche got one after an- 
other of the bunch. A few of us are still here 
to get back at him. We were proud of being 
Americans, and that is why I want to tell 
the records of these men, the things which I 
saw and know about them. Much of it is not 
known on this side. 

Charles Sweeney, one of my most loyal 
friends, was a brave and excellent soldier; 
he was very severely wounded during the 
offensive in Champagne in 1915. He won 

142 



MY^ PALS 143 

the rank of Captain, has been decorated with 
the Legion d'Honneur and the Croix de 
Guerre^ twice mentioned in the orders of the 
entire army. He was recently transferred 
into the U. S. Army with the rank of Major- 
I think he should have been made a Briga- 
dier-General as he is far in advance of many 
American officers in the science of modern 
warfare. 

I don't think you could find a bigger- 
hearted man than Rene Philezot. He told 
me that he would leave his bones on the field 
of battle, and he did. Christmas day, 1914, 
Rene sent $400 from the trenches to the Bel- 
gians when many a millionaire living in a 
palace only gave a five-spot, and few did 
that. It's the difference in men, and the best 
are never known until it's too late. 

Jimmy Bach was the son of a millionaire, 
but that didn't seem to hurt him any. 
Jimmy was one of the best. Absolutely 
fearless, a friend indeed. Jimmy was taken 
prisoner in the aviation in September, iQi^, 
while performing a special mission, that of 



144 ''EN UAIRr 

landing spies in the German lines. He had 
gone back to get a comrade who had met 
with an accident. Jimmy broke his propel- 
ler by striking a stump, was made prisoner 
and tried three times by a court-martial. He 
had one of the best attorneys in Berlin to 
defend him and was acquitted of being an 
accomplice of a spy, otherwise he would have 
been shot. I missed him very much, and I 
got revenge for him later on I am glad to 
say. 

Stewart Carstairs, a slender, refined boy, 
was one of the gamest I ever knew. He was 
a very well-known artist. How he was able 
to resist hardship so wonderfully I never 
understood, for he suffered exceedingly from 
neuralgia. I have seen his face swollen 
twice its normal size, but never a complaint. 
He was one of our mysterious kind who al- 
ways had cigarettes. I don't know how he 
got them, but I assure you that any one with 
cigarettes was popular, especially with me. 
Stewart was forced to leave in February, 
1915, on account of his health, but I admired 
him for holding out as long as he did. 



MY PALS 145 

Bill Thaw has been wounded in the el- 
bow, but he is there yet flying every day with 
his left arm that cannot be straightened out. 
Only a few do those things, most of them 
would go home, and pose as a hero. Bill is 
my best friend, for I know what is in him. 
He ranks now as a lieutenant, has the Legion 
d'Honneur^ Croix de Guerre^ five citations 
in the Army orders and the last I heard he 
had brought down his eighth Boche. I don't 
think many people know how Bill Thaw got 
his wound. It happened this way. One 
day Thaw, Rockwell and myself were to- 
gether over near Fort de Vaux when I at- 
tacked a German. As I did so, two other 
Germans came after me. Thaw came to my 
aid, and he was hit by a German some three 
hundred yards away and below him. The 
shot took him in the left elbow. He went 
down and I got out of my difficulty and 
watched him. He landed in the second-line 
trenches, but did not break his machine. In 
landing the machine tore down all the tele- 
phone lines to the trenches in that sector. 



146 ''EN LAIRr 

He did not know whether he was in our lines 
or in the German lines. But as the soldiers 
came up he felt much better when he saw 
they were French. Balsy also, in his experi- 
ence, did not know where he was. When 
hit in the stomach by an explosive bullet he 
said it w^as a terrible sensation and, as he 
came to, he righted his machine and kept say- 
ing to himself : 

"Keep your head, boy, keep your head." 

It was only by superhuman effort he 
landed. It was some bad ground and he 
wrecked his machine. He was soon picked 
up and taken to a field hospital where he 
was in a state of coma for four days, but 
owing to his good state of health he was 
saved. 

James W. Ganson, who was a game sport, 
was forty-six years old when he enlisted. 
He hung on for a year, when, owing to ill 
health he had to give up. He tried to get 
transferred into the artillery, but was un- 
successful, so he went home. 

Wilson was quite a diplomat. He didn't 



My PALS 147 

believe in work, and said he was a doctor, 
so Dr. Wilson he was. He was our chief 
chemist. 

David King, a man of a well-known fam- 
ily and a jfine chap, spent about two years in 
the trenches. He was wounded and badly 
gassed and has almost lost his sight. He was 
transferred to the artillery and is there yet. 

J. J. Casey, an artist of note, and game, 
has been continually in the midst of it all. 
Casey has been wounded twice and is there 
now, looking for more. 

E. Towle, of Tuxedo, was a game boy — 
only eighteen. He spent some months in 
the trenches, later got his release and came 
home. 

Chatkoff, a wild and woolly chap, spent a 
number of months in the trenches, was trans- 
ferred into the aviation and had some sport 
learning to fly. He had numerous accidents 
and finally asked to be sent to the trenches 
to rest his nerves. He came back a little 
later to fly and landed on a house-top, which 
ended his career as an aviator. Chatkoff has 



148 "Ei\/ UAIRr 

gone back to the trenches, saying that he is 
a better bayonet pilot. 

Paul Rockwell, good old southern boy, 
came over to get revenge on the Germans, 
was badly wounded in May, 1915, and was 
released. Paul is now married to a beauti- 
ful French girl, Miss Legg, and I hope Paul 
is as good a husband as he was soldier. 

One of the best of them all was poor Kif- 
fin Rockwell, brother of Paul, one of the 
cleanest, squarest men I ever knew. KifBn 
didn't know the meaning of fear. I think 
he had as many combats in the air as any man 
in the French aviation. He was credited 
with three Boches, but I am sure he brought 
down more, no less than six. He and I were 
not very popular with our captain, as we told 
him and everyone else what we thought. 
KifBn lost his life in a combat near the spot 
where he brought down his first German. 
He wore the Medaille Militaire, the Croix 
de Guerre^ and had the rank of Sub-Lieuten- 
ant. I still miss him and always will, and I 
have not yet finished revenging Kifiin's loss. 



MY_ PALS 149 

He was so skinny, I used to call him the Liv- 
ing Hall Tree. We used to tell KifEn that 
if he could keep side on to a German it 
would be impossible to hit him. He was a 
good poker player, a game at which we spent 
many pleasant evenings. 

F. W. Zinn seemed like the laziest boy 
in the world, not lazy exactly but always 
tired, and one of the worst book-worms I 
ever saw. No matter where he was he always 
had a book of some sort. He tried flying but 
did not make a success. Later he developed 
into one of the best men in the photographic 
service in France. 

Bob Soubirain, who spent eighteen months 
in the trenches, is now one of the good flyers 
in the aviation corps. He deserves the best 
of luck. 

George Casmeze had the bad luck to be 
taken ill. He was the originator of the 
American Volunteer Corps, but had to be 
left behind. 

Edgar J. Bouligny was the best specimen 
of a man I have ever seen. He was wounded 



150 ''EN UAIRr 

several times but is still in the game. He 
was too heavy for the aviation, but he would 
have made a dandy fighter. 

Bob Scanlon, was a negro prize fighter. 
He said he liked to fight but preferred to 
pick his own ground. I don't know what 
became of him. 

Dennis Dowd, a New York lawyer, spent 
eighteen months in the trenches, and then 
transferred to the Flying Corps. Dowd was 
killed last fall in an accident in his School. 

George Del Peuch was a good fighter and 
very brave. I think he was killed at the 
Battle of the Somme, and I wager he died 
game. He was that kind. 

F. Morlae, who was a reckless fellow but 
a fine soldier, went through the Battles of 
the Somme and Champagne. He came home 
to Los Angeles and died there from the shock 
of what he had been through. 

F. Capdevielle is still in France, wounded 
twice. He wears the Croix de Guerre, 
Charles Trinkard is also at the front yet. 

F. Landreaux spent a year or more there. 



MY. PALS 151 

and has since been released. He was one of 
our best entertainers, and was well known 
as an artist in France. He was always in 
poor health, but game, and I admired him 
very much. 

Allen Segar, whose war poems are the best 
ever written, was a brave and fearless boy. 
His talent was unknown and undeveloped 
then. I understand a monument is to be 
erected to his memory in Paris. He was 
killed at the Battle of the Somme, as were 
some of the boys who came on later. 

Norman Prince was one of the kind who 
wants to see others do well and get along. 
He looked after every one but himself. He 
was the founder of the American Escadrille, 
and spent all his time making it go and fi- 
nally did so. I liked Norman very much. 
He was a big loss to all of us as he was the 
one that furnished the pep for the outfit. 

James McConnell was not only a fine boy, 
but a talented writer. I used to call him 
McScandal. I was sorry to hear of his death, 
for I think he would have written some very 



152 ''EN UAIRr 

interesting stories on the war. I remember 
our first trip over the lines. He was lost and 
followed me all the time. He said I didn't 
know whether we were going to Berlin or 
Paris. 

Charles Beaumont changed regiments and 
I don't know what has become of him. E. 
H. Towle was taken ill and had to be left be- 
hind, poor fellow. He afterwards came 
back home. 

Victor Chapman, the man of all men, was 
one of our bravest, and one of the best 
friends I ever had. A lover of art and of 
life, he was good in every way. He did three 
men's work daily and very rarely came in 
without a few bullet holes in his machine. 
He brought down at the least six Germans. 
He attacked them, no matter how many there 
were or what the conditions. He gave his 
life for humanity. At the time of his death 
he was carrying a deep scalp wound caused 
by a bullet ploughing its way through his 
scalp just above the right ear. An ordinary 
man would have been in the hospital, but 



MY^ PALS 153 

not Victor. He was fond of art and read- 
ing, and with the latter he spent much of his 
spare time. He was very much interested 
in science, also, and did a good deal of 
shooting and walking. He was an excep- 
tional conversationalist; he could interest 
you on almost any subject. Not like most of 
the boys, he was very settled in his habits, 
was never excited or mad, and I am confident 
he never knew what fear meant. He had 
spent a year in the trenches previous to en- 
tering the flying corps. 

Wouldn't any American be proud to have 
lived and fought with a bunch like this ! 



THE END 



Causes and Pretexts 
of the World War 

By ORESTE FERRARA 

Professor of Public Law in the University of Havana 
A SEARCHING EXAMINATION INTO THE PLAY AND 
COUNTERPLAY OF EUROPEAN POLITICS FROM 
THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR TO THE OUT- 
BURST OF THE GREAT WORLD WAR 



The author dissects and analyzes the momentous 
phenomenon we are witnessing with the serenity 
of an anatomist. He separates causes from pre- 
texts, and ideals from interests, studies the psy- 
chology of the various races concerned, and with 
clearness and simplicity unites the links of the long 
chain of events whose includible finale was war. 
His examination of this supreme struggle of Kultur 
against Civilization, of Violence against Virtus, 
shows there is only one door open to Democracy, 
and that is Victory. 

Contents: 
The Inevitable War Antebellum Public Opinion 

The Significance of 1870 Efforts of the Various Gov- 

France and Russia emments 

France and England The General Conflict 

Russia and England Xhe Violation of the Neu- 

Z^^ ^"P^^. All^^ce trality of Luxemburg 

The Mediterranean Agree- England and the Violation of 
nnu"^?^ T A.u Belgium Neutrality 

TheFranco-Japaneseandthe ^he Ultimatum and Eng- 

Russo - Japanese Agree- i^^,^ Declaration of Wa? 

ThTpolicy of Germany and Turkey and the Conflict 

the " Encerclement » l^^'^ Neutrality 

Plans Frustrated ^^^ly s Participation 

The Various Interests En- BelHgerent and Neutral Bal- 

coimtered. kan States 

Servia's Aspirations and Aus- Belligerent and Neutral in 

tria's Crime Latin America 

The Violent. Method and Its Spanish Neutrality 

Result Greece's Double Attitude 

Cloth, $1.50 net. Postpaid $1.65 

NEW LIBRARY, Inc., 542 Fifth Ave., New York 



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